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THE 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 



FROM THE BIRTH OF CHRIST TO THE ABOUTION OF 
PAGANISM IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 



By HENEY HAET MILMAN, D.D., 



DEAN OF ST. FAX7L S. 



IX THREE VOLUMES.— Vol. If. 



J^ liTE-W- JLIiTX) ItEVIS333D ETDITIOliT . 



LONDON; 
JOHN MUKKAT, ALBEMAELE STKEET. 

1875. 

The right qf Trantlatioa it reterved. 



LONDON: 

PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 

STAMVOBD 8TBKET AND CHARI2T0 CROSS. 



t J->7-'f 






CONTENTS OF YOL IL 






BOOK II. — continued. 

CHAPTEE IV. 

Cbnstianity to the close of the First Century — Constitution 
of Christian Chniobes « Page 1 

CHAPTEE V. 

Christianity and Orientalism .. .. 30 

CHAPTEE VL 

Christianity during the prosperous period of the Roman 
Empire B8 

CHAPTEE VII. 
Christianity and Maipus Aurelius the Philosopher 112 

CHAPTEE VIII. 

j Fourth Period — Christianity under the Successors of Marcus 

Aurelius 149 



1 



CHAPTEE IX. 

The Persecution under Diocletian • .. 204 



ir CONTENTS OF VOL. II 

BOOK IIL 

CHAPTEE L 
Constantine Page 241 

CHAPTEE IL 

Constantine becomes sole Emperor 312 

CHAPTEE IIL 
Foundation of Constantinople .. .. 330 

OHAPTBB IV. 
Trinitarian Controversy •• • • 350 

OHAPTBB V. 

Christianity imder the Sods of Oanstantlne .. ^5 

OHAPTBB VL 
Julian 4id 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY, 



BOOK 1 1. — cotdinued. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Christianity to the Close of the First Century. — Constitution of 

Christian Churches. 

The changes in the moral are usually wrought as imper- 
ceptibly as those in the physical world. Had Great revo- 
any wise man, either convinced of the divine and gradual, 
origin of Christianity, or even contemplating with phi- 
losophical sagacity the essential nature of the new 
religion and the existing state of the human mind, 
ventured to predict that from the ashes of these obscure 
men would arise a moral sovereignty more extensive 
and lasting than that of the Caesars ; that buildings 
more splendid.than any which adorned the new marble 
city, now rising from the ruins of the conflagration, 
would be dedicated to their names, and maintain their 
reverence for an incalculably longer period ; such vati- 
cinations would have met the fate inseparable from the 
wisdom which outstrips its age, would have been scorned 
by contemporary pride, and only admired, after their 
accomplishment, by late posterity. The slight and con- 
temptuous notice excited by Christianity during the first 
century of its promulgation is in strict accordance with 
tliis ordinary development of the great and lasting revo« 

VOL. II. ^ 



2 FOUR PERIODS OF IMPERIAL HISTORY. Book II. 

lutions in human affaire. The moral world has some- 
times, indeed, its volcanic explosions, which suddenly 
and violently convulse and reform the order of things ; 
but ita more enduring changes are in general produced 
by the slow and silent workings of opinions, remotely 
prepared and gradually expanding to their mature and 
irresistible inHuence. In default, therefore, of real in- 
formation as to the secret but simultaneous progress of 
Christianity in so many quarters, and among all ranks, 
we are left to speculate on the influence of the passing 
events of the time, and of the changes in the public 
mind, whetlier favourable or prejudicial to the cause of 
Christianity, catching only faiot and uncertain gleams 
of its peculiar history through the confused and rapidly 
changing course of public atfaii-s. 

The Imperial history from the first promulgation of 

ijjp^nji Christianity down to the accession of Cou- 

vidSiVto fitantine, divides itself into four distinct, but 

tourperiodt. „jigqujii periods. More than thirty years are 

occupied by the line of the first Ctesars, rather less by 

the conflicts which followed the death of Nero, and tlie 

government of the Flavian dynasty. The first years of 

Trajan, who ascended the Imperial throne a.d. 98, 

'. nearly synchronize with tlie opening of the second 

\ \ century of CluHstiaaity ; and that splendid period of 

\ 1 internal peace and advancing civilisation, of wealth, 

1 land of prosperity, which has been described as the hap- 

\ Ipiest in the annals of mankind, extends over the first 

eighty years of tJiat century." Down to the accession of 

Constantine, nearly at the commencement of the fourth 

Essai Bur I'Epoque d> 
itoire Jiomaine la plus h-i^ra.'" 
le Genre Hnmain. Par 




CHAP. IV. FIRST PERIOD, TO DEATH OF NERO. 3 

century, the Empire became, like the great monarchies of 
the East, the prize of successful ambition and enterprise ; 
almost every change of ruler is a change of dynasty ; 
and already the borders of the Empire have ceased to be 
respected by the menacing, the conquering Barbarians. 

It is remarkable how singularly the political cha- 
racter of each period was calculated to advance First period, 
the growth of Christianity. erf Nero. 

During the first of these periods, the Government, 
though it still held in respect the old republican institu- 
tions, was, if not in form, in its administration purely 
desj)otic. The state centered in the person of the Em- 
peror. This kind of hereditary autocracy is essentially 
selfish ; it is content with averting or punishing plots 
against the person, or detecting and crushing conspi- 
racies against the power, of the existing monarch. To 
those more remote or secret changes which are working 
in the depths of society, eventually perhaps threatening 
the existence of the monarchy, or the stability of all the 
social relations, it is blind or indifferent.^ It has neither 
sagacity to discern, intelligence to comprehend, nor 
even the disinterested zeal for the perpetuation of its 
own despotism, to counteract such distant and contin- 
gent dangers. Of all innovations it is, in general, sen- 
sitively jealous ; but they must be palpable and manifest, 
and directly clashing with the passions or exciting the 
fears of the sovereign. Even these are met by tempo- 
rary measures. When an outcry was raised against the 
Egyptian religion as dangerous to public morality, an 
edict commanded the expulsion of its votaries from the 
city. When the superstition of the Emperor shuddered 



^ •'Saevi proximis ingruunt.** In 
this one pregnant sentence uf Tacitus 
is explained the political secret, that the 



mass of the people have sometimes 
been comparatively unoppressed und«l 
the most sangulnarj tyranny. 



t CHBISTIANITY UNDER NERO. Book IL 

at the predictions of the Mathematicians, the whole fra- 
ternity fell under the same interdict. When the public 
peace was disturbed by the dissensions among the Jewish 
population of Eome, the summary sentence of Claudius 
visited both Jews and Christians with the same indif- 
ferent severity. So the Neronian persecution was an 
accident arising out of the fire at Eome, no part of a 
systematic poUtical plan for the suppression of foreign 
religions. It might have fallen on any other sect or 
body of men who might have been designated as victims 
to appease the popular resentment. The provincial ad- 
ministrations would be actuated by the same principles 
as the central government, and be alike indifferent to 
the quiet progress of opinions, however dangerous to the 
existing order of things. Unless some breach of the 
public peace demanded their interference, they would 
i-arely put forth their power; and, content with the 
maintenance of order, the regular collection of the re- 
venue, the more rapacious with the punctual payment 
of their own exactions, the more enlightened with the 
improvement and embellishment of the cities under 
their charge, they would look on the rise and propaga- 
tion of a new religion with no more concern than that 
of a new philosophic sect, particularly in the eastern 
part of the empire, where the religions were in general 
more foreign to the character of the Greek or Boman 
Polytheism. The popular feeling during this first period 
would only under peculiar circumstances outstrip the acti- 
vity of the Government. Accustomed to the separate 
worship of the Jews, to the many Christianity appeared 
at first only as a modification of that belief. Local 
jealousies or personal animosities might in different 
places excite a more active hostiL'ty. In Bome it is 
evident that the people were only worked up to find in- 



Ohap. IV. 



ITS GRADUAL PROGRESS. 



buman delight in the sufferings of the Christians, by the 
misrepresentations of the Government, by superstitious 
solicitude to find some victims to appease the angry 
Gods, and that strange consolation of human misery, the 
delight of wreaking vengeance on whomsoever it car 
possibly implicate as the cause of the calamity. 

During the whole, then, of this first period, to the 
death of Nero, both the primitive obscurity of Chris- 
tianity, and the transient importance it assumed, as a 
dangerous enemy of the people of Eome, and subse- 
quently as the guiltless victim of popular vengeance, 
would tend to its eventual progress. Its own innate acti- 
vity, with all the force which it carried with it, both in its 
internal and external impulse, would propagate it exten- 
sively in the inferior and middle classes of society ; while. . 
though the great mass of the higher orders wouldjlil^'Y^ 
remain unacquainted with its real nature, and \vdth its 
relation to its parent Judaism, it was quite enough 
before the public attention to awaken the curiosity of 
the more inquiring, and to excite the interest of those 
who were seriously concerned in the moral advancement 
of mankind. In many quarters, it is far from impossible 
that the strong revulsion of the public mind against 
Nero, after his death, may have extended some com- 
miseration towards his innocent victims : ° that the 
Christians were acquitted by the pop\ilar feeling of any 
real eonnexion with the fire at Rome, appears evident 
from Tacitus, who retreats into vague expressions of 
general scorn and animosity.* At all events, the perse- 
cution must have had the effect of raising the im- 



< Thig wag the case even in £cine. 
'* (Jnde quanqoam ad versus sontes et 
Dovissiina exempla mentog, miseratio 
oriehatiir, tanquam non utilitate pab- 



Iic&, sed in saevitiam unius abgu- 
merentur." Tac. An. xv. 44. 
' Odio humani geneiis convicti. 



6 SECOND PERIOD — TRAJ AIT. Book IL 

portance of Christianity, so as to force it upon the notice 
of many who might otherwise have been ignorant of its 
existence. The new and peculiar fortitude with which 
the suflferers endured their unprecedented trials, would 
strongly recommend it to those who were dissatisfied 
with the moral power of their old religion; while on the 
other hand it was yet too feeble and obscure to provoke 
a systematic plan for its suppression. 

During the second period of the first century, from A.D. 
secoDd period. 68 to 98, the date of the accession of Trajan, 
ifon^f T^ the larger portion was occupied by the reign of 
^*"- Domitian, a tyrant in whom the successors of 

Augustus might appear to revive, both in the monstrous 
vices of his personal character, and of his government. 
Of the Flavian dynasty, the father alone, Vespasian, 
from the comprehensive vigour of his mind, perhaps 
from his knowledge of the Jewish character and reli- 
gion, obtained during his residence in the East, was 
likely to estimate the bearings and future prospects of 
Christianity. But the total subjugation of Judaea, and 
the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, having 
reduced the religious parents of the Christians to so low 
a state, their nation, and consequently their religion, 
being, according to the ordinary course of events, likely 
to mingle up with and become absorbed in the general 
population of the Roman empire, Christianity, it might 
reasonably be supposed, would scarcely survive its 
original stock, and might be safely left to bum out by 
the same gradual process of extinction. Besides this, 
the strong mind of Vespasian was fully occupied by the 
restoration of order in the capital and in the provinces, 
and in fixing on a firm basis the yet unsettled authority 
of the Flavian dynasty. A more formidable, because 
more immediate, danger threatened* the existing ordei 



Chap. IV. 



THE STOICS— TEMPLE TAX. 



of things. The awful genius of Roman liberty had 
entered into an alliance with the higher philosophy of 
the time. Eepublican stoicism, brooding in stoic pMio- 
the noblest minds of Rome, looked back, with ^p*^«"- 
vain though passionate regret, to the free institutions of 
their ancestors, and demanded the old liberty of action. 
It was this dangerous movement — not the new and 
humble religion, which calmly acquiesced in all political 
changes, ajid contented itself with liberty of thought 
and opinion — that put to the test the prudence and 
moderation of the Emperor Vespasian. It was the 
spirit of Cato, not of Christ, which he found it neces- 
sary to control. The enemy before whom he trembled 
was the patriot Thrasea, not the Apostle St. John, who 
was silently winning over Ephesus to the new faith. 
The edict of expulsion from Rome fell not on the wor- 
shippers of foreign religions, but on the philosophers, a 
comprehensive term, but which was probably limited to 
those whose opinions were considered dangerous to the 
Impeiial authority.® 

It was only with the new fiscal regulations of the 
rapacious and parsimonious Vespasian that the Chris- 
tians were accidentally implicated. The Emperor con- 
tinued to levy the capitation tax, which had been 
willingly and proudly paid by the Jews throughout the 
empire for the maintenance of their own Temple at 
Jerusalem, for the restoration of the idolatrous fane of 
the Capitoline Jupiter, which had been destroyed in the 
civil contests. The Jew submitted with sullen 
reluctance to this insulting exaction; but 
even the hope of escaping it would not incline him to 



Temple taiL 



• Tadt. Hist iv. 4-9. Dion Cas- 
uuB, liri. 13. Suetonias, Vespas. 15. 



Tillemont, Hist, des Empeperirs: V»- 
pasian. Art. 15. 



8 



CONDITION OF JEWS AFTER THE WAR. Book II. 



disguise or dissemble his faith. But the Judaizing 
Christian, and even the Christian of Jewish descent, who 
had entirely thrown ofif his religion, yet was marked by 
the indelible sign of his race, was placed in a singularly 
perplexing position.' The rapacious pubUcan, who 
farmed the tax, was not likely to draw any true distinc- 
tion among those whose features, connexions, names, and 
notorious descent, still designated them as liable to the 
tax : his coarser mind would consider the profession of 
Christianity as a subterfuge to escape a yexatious im- 
post But to the Jewish Christian of St. Paul's opinions, 
the unresisted payment of the burthen, however insig- 
nificant, and to which he was not bound, either by the 
letter or the spirit of the edict, was an acknowledgment 
of his unconverted Judaism, of his being still under the 
Law, as well as an indirect contribution to the mainte- 
nance of heathenism. It is difiScult to suppose that 
those who were brought before the public tribunal, 
as claiming an exemption from the tax, and exposed to 
the most indecent examination of their Jewish de- 
scent, were any other than this class of Judaizing 
Christians. 

In other respects, the connexion of the Christians 
with the Jews could not but affect their place in that in- 
discriminating pubhc estimation which stiU, in general, 
notwithstanding the Neronian persecution, confounded 
Change in the them toffcther. The Jewish war appears to 

condition and . ^^ . i. • i i • i 

estimauon of havo made a sreat alteration both m the con- 
after the war ditiou of the raco of Isracl, and in the popular 
sentiment towards them. From aversion as a sullen 



' Dion Cassius, edit. Reimar, with 
his notes, lib. Izvi. p. 1082. Sueto- 
nius in Dom. y. 12. Martial, Tii. 14. 



Basnage, Histoire dea Joiia, toI. vii 
ch. li. p. 304. 



Chap. IV. SO-CALLED EDICT OF DOMITIAN. 9 

and unsocial, they were now looked upon with hatred 
and contempt, as a fierce, a desperate, and an enslaved 
race. Some of the higher orders, Agrippa and Josephus 
the historian, maintained a respectable, and eyen an 
eminent rank at Eome ; but the provinces were overrun 
by swarms of Jewish slaves, or miserable fugitives, re- 
duced by necessity to the meanest occupations, and 
lowering their minds to their sordid and beggarly con- 
dition.^ As then to some of the Eomans the Christian 
assertion of religious freedom would seem closely allied 
with the Jewish attempt to obtain civil independence, 
they might appear, especially to those in authority, to 
have inherited the intractable and insubordinate spirit 
of their religious forefathers ; so, on the other hand, in 
some places, the Christian might be dragged down, in 
the popular apprehension, to the level of the fallen and 
outcast Jew. Thus, while Christianity in fact was be- 
coming more and more alienated from Judaism, and 
even assuming the most hostile position, the Eoman 
rulers would be the last to discern the widening breach, 
or to discriminate between that religious confederacy 
which was destined to absorb within it all the subjects 
of the Eoman empire, and that race which was to remain 
in its social isolation, neither blended into the general 
mass of mankind, nor admitting any other within its in- 
superable pale. If the singular story related The descend- 

__ ■*• o ./ anta of the 

by Hegesippus** concerning the family of our brethren of 
Lord deserves credit, even the descendants of brought be- 
His house were endangered by their yet un- tnbnnaL 
broken connexion with the Jewish race. Domitian is 
said to have issued an edict for the extermination of the 
whole house of David, in order to annihilate for ever the 



t Compare Hist, of the Jews, ii. 454. ^ Eusebius, iii. 20. 



10 IMPROBABILITY OP THE STOBY. Book II. 

hope of the Messiah, which still brooded with dangerous 
excitement in the Jewish mind. The grandsons of 
St. Jude, "the brother of the Lord," were denounced 
by certain heretics as belonging to the proscribed 
family, and brought before the tribunal of the Em- 
peror, or, more probably, that of the Procurator of 
Judaea.* They acknowledged their descent from the 
royal race, and their relationship to the Messiah ; but 
in Christian language they asserted that the kingdom 
which they expected was purely spiritual and angelic, 
and only to commence at the end of the world, after the 
return to judgement. Their poverty, rather than their 
renunciation of all temporal views, was their security. 
They were peasants, whose hands were hardened with 
toil, and whose whole property was a farm of about 
twenty-four English acres, and of the value of 9000 
drachms, or about three hundred pounds sterling. This 
they cultivated by their own labour, and regularly paid 
the appointed tribute. They were released as too hum- 
ble and too harmless to be dangerous to the Eoman 
authority, and Domitian, according to the singularly 
inconsistent account, proceeded to annul his edict of 
persecution against the Christians. • 

Like all the stories which rest on the sole authority of 
Hegesippus, this has a very fabulous air. At no period 
were the hopes of the Messiah entertained by the Jews 
so little likely to awaken the jealousy of the Emperor 
as in the reign of Domitian. The Jewish mind was still 
stunned, as it were, by the recent blow : the whole land 
was in a state of iron subjection. Nor was it till the 
latter part of the reign of Trajan, and that of Hadrian, 
that they rallied for their last desperate and conclusive 

* Gibbon thus modifies the story, to which he appeai-s to give some crxiit. 



Chju». IV. FLAVIUS CLEMENS. 11 

struggle for independence. Nor, however indistinct the 
line of demarcation between the Jews and the Chris- 
tians, is it easy to trace the connexion between the 
stem precaution for the preservation of the peace of the 
Eastern world and the stability of the Empire against 
any enthusiastic aspirant after an universal sovereignty, 
with what is sometimes called the second great persecu- 
tion of Christianity; for the exterminating edict was 
aimed at a single &mily, and at the extinction of a 
purely Jewish tenet, though it may be admitted that, 
even yet, the immediate return of the Messiah to reign 
on earth was dominant among most of the Jewish 
Christians of Palestine. Even if true, this edict was 
rather the hasty and violent expedient of an arbitrary 
sovereign, trembling for his personal security, and 
watchful to avert danger from his throne, than a pro- 
found and vigorous policy, which aimed at the suppres- 
sion of a new religion, declaredly hostile, and threaten- 
ing the existence of the established Pol3rtheism. 

Christianity, however, appears to have forced itsell 
upon the knowledge and the fears of Domitian in a more 
unexpected quarter — the bosom of his own family.^ Of 
his two cousins-german, the sons of Flavins Sabinus, 
the one fell an early victim to his jealous ap- j^^^, 
prehensions. The other. Flavins Clemens, is ^*®°*^' 
described by the epigrammatic biographer of the Caesars 
as a man of the most contemptible indolence of cha- 
racter. His peaceful kinsman, instead of exciting the 
fears, enjoyed, for some time, the favour, of Domitian. 
He received in marriage Domitilla, the niece of the 
Bmperor ; his children were adopted as heirs to tlie 

^ Soetoniiis, in Domit. c 15. Dion Cassias, Ixvii. 14. EuselnuB, iii IK 



i2 PEESECUTION UNDER DOMITIAN. Book II. 

throne ; Clemens himself obtained the consulship. On 
a sudden these harmless kinsmen became dangerous 
conspirators ; they were arraigned on the unprecedented 
charge of Atheism and Jewish manners ; the husband, 
Clemens, was put to death; the wife, Domitilla, 
banished to the desert island, either of Pontia, or Pan- 
dataria. The crime of Atheism was afterwards the 
common popular charge against the Christians; the 
charge to which, in all ages, those are exposed who are 
superior to the vulgar notion of the Deity. But it was 
a charge never advanced against Judaism: coupled, 
therefore, with that of Jewish manners, it is unintelli- 
gible, unless it refers to Christianity. Nor is it im- 
probable that the contemptible want of energy, ascribed 
by Suetonius to Flavins Clemens, might be that un- 
ambitious superiority to the world which characterised 
the early Christians. Clemens had seen his brother cut 
off by the sudden and capricious fears of the tyrant ; 
and his repugnance to enter on the same dangerous 
public career, in pursuit of honours which he despised, 
if it had assumed the lofty language of philosophy, 
might have commanded the admiration of his contempo- 
raries, but, connected with a new religion, of which the 
sublimer notions and principles were altogether incom- 
prehensible, only exposed him to their more con- 
temptuous scorn. Neither in his case was it the peril 
apprehended from the progress of the religion, but the 
dangerous position of the individuals professing the 
religion, so near to the throne, which was fatal to 
Clemens and Domitilla. It was the pretext, not the 
cause, of their punishment ; and the first act of the 
reign of Nerva was the reversal of these sentences by 
the authority of the senate. The exiles were recalled, 



Chap. IV. DEATH OF ST. JOHN THE APOSTLE. 



13 



and an act, prohibiting all accosations of Jewish 
manners,'^ seems to have been intended as a peace 
offering for the execution of Clemens, and for the 
especial protection of the Christians. 

But Christian history cannot pass over another in- 
cident assigned to the reign of Domitian, since Legencbof 
it relates to the death of St. John the Apostle. ^X^^°* 
Christian gratitude and reverence soon began ^^^ *°*** 
to be discontented with the silence of the au- <»«"^e8. 
thentic writings as to the fate of the twelve chosen com- 
panions of Christ. It began first with some modest respect 
for truth, but soon with bold defiance of probability, to 
brighten* their obscure course, till each might be traced 
by the blaze of miracle into remote regions of the 
world, where it is clear that, if they had penetrated, no 
record of their existence was likely to survive." These 
religious invaders, according to the later Christian 
romance, made a regular partition of the world, and 
assigned to each the conquest of his particular province. 
Thrace, Scythia, Spain, Britain, Ethiopia, the extreme 
parts of Africa, India, the name of which mysterious 
region was sometimes assigned to the southern coast of 
"Arabia, had each its Apostle, whose spiritual triumphs 
and cruel martyrdom were vividly pourtrayed and 
gradually amplified by the fertile invention of the 
Greek and Syrian historians of the early Death ©f si. 
Church. Even the history of St. John, whose "^^^ 
later days were chiefly passed in the populous and 
commercial city of Ephesus, has not escaped. Yet 
legend has delighted in harmonising its tone with the 
character of the beloved disciple drawn in the Gospel, 



Dion CasBiiu^ Izviii. 1. 
Euaeb. Eoc. Hist. iii. 1. 



The 



tradition is here in its simpler aD4 
clearljr more genuine form. 



14 



CONSTITUTION OF CHKISTIAN CHURCHES. Book II. 



and illustrated in his own writings. Even if purely 
imaginary, these stories show that another spirit was 
working in the mind of man. While, then, we would 
reject, as the offspring of a more angry and controversial 
age, the story of his fljong in fear and indignation from 
a bath polluted by the presence of the heretic Cerinthus, 
we might admit the pleasing tradition that when he 
grew so feeble from age as to be unable to utter any 
long discourse, his last, if we may borrow the expression, 
his cycnean voice, dwelt on a brief exhortation to 
mutual charity.® His whole sermon consisted in these 
words : " Little children, love one another ; " and when 
his audience remonstrated at the wearisome iteration of 
the same words, he declared that in these words was 
contained the whole substance of Christianity. The 
deportation of the Apostle to the wild island of Patmos, 
where general tradition places his writing the Book of 
Revelations, is by no means improbable, if we suppose 
it to have taken place under the authority of the pro- 
consul of Asia, on account of some local disturbance in 
Ephesus, and, notwithstanding the authority of Ter- 
tullian, reject the trial before Domitian at Rome, and 
the plunging him into a cauldron of boiling oil, from 
which he came forth unhurt.^ Such are the few vestiges 
of the progress of Christianity which we dimly trace in 
the obscurity of the latter part of the first century. 
coiiBtitttUon During this period, however, took place the 
Churches, rcgular formation of the young Christian 
republics, in all the more considerable cities of the 
Empire. The primitive constitution of these churches 



' Euseb. Ecc. Hist. iii. 12. 

P '* Ubi (in Roni&) Apostolus Jo- 
hannes, postea quam in oleum igneum 
demenus, nihil passus est.** Moelieim 



suspects that in this passage of Ter- 
tuUian a metaphor has been converted 
into a fact. De Reb. Christ, ante Con< 
tttant. p. 111. 



Chap. IV. ORIGIN OF ORDERS IN THE CHURCH. 15 

is a subject which it is impossible to decline ; though 
few points in Christian history rest on more dubious 
and imperfect, in general or inferential evidence, yet 
few have been contested with greater pertinacity. 

The whole of Christendom, when it emerges out of 
the obscurity of the first century, appears unifonnly 
governed by certain superiors of each community, called 
bishops. But the origin and extent of this superiority, 
and the manner in which the bisliop assumed a distinct 
authority from the inferior presbyters, is one of those 
diflScult questions of Christian history which, since the 
Keformation, has been more and more darkened by 
those fatal enemies to candid and dispassionate inquiry. 
Prejudice and Interest. The earliest Christian com- 
munities appear to have been ruled and represented, in 
the absence of the Apostle who was their first founder, 
by their elders, who are likewise called bishops, or 
ovwseers of the churches. These presbyter bishops 
and the deacons are the only two orders which we 
discover at first in the Church of Ephesus, at Philippi, 
and perhaps in Crete.^ On the other hand, at a very 
early period, one religious functionary, superior to the 
rest, appears to have been almost universally recognised ; 
at least, it is dif&cult to understand how, in so short a 
time, among communities, though not entirely discon- 
nected, yet scattered over the whole Eoman world, a 
scheme of government popular, or rather aristocratical, 
should become, even in form, monarchical. Neither 
the times nor the circumstances of the infant Church, 
nor the primitive spirit of the religion, appear to favour 
a general, a systematic, and an unauthorised usurpation 
of power on the part of the supreme religious func- 

« Acts xz. 17, oompai-ed with 28. Philip, i. 1. Titui i. 5-7. 



16 



THE ANGEL, OE BISHOP. 



Book II. 



tionary/ Yet the change has already taken place within 
the Apostolic times. The Church of Ephesiis, which in 
the Acts is represented by its elders, in the Kevela- 
tions' is represented by its angel or bishop. We may, 
perhaps, arrive at a more clear and intelligible view of 
this subject, by endeavouring to trace the origin and 
development of the Christian communities. 

The Christian Church was almost universally formed 
by a secession from a Jewish synagogue. Some syna- 
gogues may have become altogether Christian ; but, in 



» The most plausible way of ac- 
counting for this total i-evolution is 
by supposing that the affairs of each 
community or chui-ch were governed 
by a college of presbyters, one of whom 
necessarily presided at their meetings, 
and gradually assumed and was re- 
cognised as possessing a superior func- 
tion and authority. In expressing my 
dissatisfaction with a theory adopted 
by Mosheim, by Gibbon, by Neander, 
and by most of the leai*ned foreign 
writers, I have scrutinised my own 
motives with the utmost suspicion, 
and can only declare that I believe 
myself actuated only by the calm and 
candid desire of truth. But the mii- 
versal and almost simultaneous eleva- 
tion of the bishop, under such drcum- 
stanoes, in every part of the world 
(though it must be admitted that he 
was for a long time assisted by the 
presbyters in the dischai^e of his 
office), appears to me an insupei-able 
objection to this hypothesis. The 
later the date which is assumed for 
the general establishment of the epis- 
copal authority, the less likely was it 
to be general. It was only during 
ihe fii'st period of undivided unity that 



such an usurpation (for such it must 
have been accoixling to this theory) 
could have been universally acquiesced 
in without resistance. All presbyters, 
according to this view, with one con- 
sent, gave up or allowed themselves to 
be deprived of their co-ordinate and 
coequal dignity. The further we ad- 
vance in Christian history, the more 
we discover the common motives of 
human nature at work. In this case 
alone aie we to suppose them with- 
out influence? Yet we discover no 
struggle, no resistance, no controversy. 
The uninterrupted line of bishops is 
ti*aced by the ecclesiastical histoiian 
up to the Apostles; but no murmur 
of remonsti'ance against this usurpa- 
tion has transpired: no schism, no 
breach of Christian unity, followed 
upon this momentous iDnovation. Kor 
does any such change appear to have 
taken place in the office of eldor in the 
Jewish communities: the Raobinicai 
teachers txxk the foim of a r^ular 
hieraix^y; their patriarch grew up 
into a kind of pope, but episocpal 
authority never took root in the syna* 
gogue. 
' Chap it 1. 



Ohap. IV. CHURCHES FORMED FROM SYNAGOGUES. 1 7 

general, a certain part of an existing community of Jews 
and Gentile proselytes incorporated them- christian 
selves into a new society, and met for the pur- fo^^m, 
pose of divine worship in some private chamber JJ^fotthe 
— sometimes, perhaps, in a public place, as synagogue. 
rather later, during the times of persecution, in a 
cemetery. The first of these may have answered to a 
synagogue, the latter to an unwalled proseucha. The 
model of the ancient community would naturally, as 
far as circumstances might admit, become that of the 
^ new. But in their primary constitution there was an 
I essential point of diflference. The Jews were a civil as 
well as a religious, the Christians exclusively a religious, 
community. Everywhere that the Jews were settled, 
they were the colony of a nation, they were held toge- 
ther by a kindred, as well as by a religious, bond of 
union. The governors, therefore, of the community, 
the Zakinim or Elders, the Pamasim or Pastors (if this 
be an early appellation), were by no means necessarily 
religious functionaries.* Another kind of influence 
besides that of piety — ^age, worldly experience, wealth — 
would obtain the chief and ruling power in the society. 
The government of these Elders neither rested on, nor 
required, spiritual authority. Their grave example 
would enforce the general 'observance, their censure 
repress any flagrant departure from the Law : they might 
be consulted on any difficult or unusual point of prac- 
tice ; but it was not till the new Eabbinical priesthood 
was established, and the Mischna and the Talmud uni- 



* In some places, the Jews seem to 
nave been ruled by an Ethnarch, 
reot^nised by the Roman civil autho- 
rities. Strabo, quoted by Joeephus. 
Antiq. zir. 12, speaks of the Ethnarch 



in Alexandria. Josephus mentions 
their Archon or chief, in Antioch. 
The more common constitution seems 
to have been the y^pcuoi and tvvwrol 
— the elders or authorities. 



VOL. IL O 



r 



18 DIFFERENCE OF CHUKCH AND SYNAGOGtIE. Book II. \ 

versally received as the national code, that the foreign 
-Jews fell under what may be considered sacerdotal 
dominion. At this time, the synagogue itself was only 
^supplementary to the great national religious ceremonial 
KKwniisi of the Temple. The Levitical race claimed 
wjwmTuio ^^ peculiar sanctity, at least it discharged no 
ihf'i^li^ priestly ofBce, beyond the bounds of the Holy 
5"«""- Land, or the precincts of the Temple ; nor was 

an anthorised ioBtmctor of the people necessary to the 
service of the synagogue. It was an assembly for the 
purpose of worship, not of teaching. The instructor of 
the people, the copy of the Law, lay in the ark at the 
east end of the building ; it was brongbt forth with 
solemn reverence, and an appointed portion read during 
the service. But oral instruction, though it might 
sometimes be, and no doubt frequently was, delivered, was 
no fiecessaiy part of the ceremonial. Any one, it shoald 
seem, who considered himself qualified, and obtained 
permission from the archisynag<^, the governors of the 
sommunity, who exercised a sort of presidence in the 
synagogue, might address the assembly. It was in this 
character that the Christian Apostle usually began to 
announce bis religion. But neither the chazan, or 
angel" of the synagogue (which was a purely minis- 
terial, comparatively a servde, office), nor the heads of 
the assembly, possessed any peculiar privilege, or were 
endowed with any official function as teacbere * of the 
people. Many of the more remote synagogues can 






■ Vitringa labour* lo prove tie 
point, tJiat the chief of the s/nagngoe 
n iilf.ce Dl' thiii kind, but in 



my opiaioa without bhccsss. It ip- 
peaiB to have beeo a rsgumr part of 
the EsHDian seiTice, a dittioctJon 
which Vitringa hai neglected lo ob- 
seire. De Syn. Vet. lib, iii. c. f " 



r 



Chap. IV. MODEL OF THE EAELY CHUECH. 19 

rarely have been honoured by the presence of the 
" Wise Men," aa they were afterwards called — thf 
lawyers of this period. Tlie Jewish religion was, at this 
time, entirely ceremonial ; it did not necessarily demand 
exposition ; its form was moolded into the habits of the 
people ; and till disturbed by the invasion of Christi- 
anity, or among very flonriBhing communities, where it 
assumed a more intellectual tone, and extended itself 
by the proselytism of the Gentiles, it was content to 
rest in that form,^ In the great days of Jewish in- 
tellectual activity, the adjacent Law-Bchool, usually 
inseparable from the synagogue, might rather be con- 
sidered the place of religious instruction. This was a 
kind of chapter-house or court of ecclesiastical, with the 
Jews identical with their national, law. Here knotty 
points were publicly debated ; and " the Wise," or the 
more dietinguislied of the lawyers or interpreters of the 
Law, aa the Rabbinical hierarchy of a later period, esta- 
blished their character for sagacious discemment of the 
meaning and intimate acquaintance with the whole 
body of the Law. 

Thus, then, the model upon which the Church miglit 
be expected to form itself, may be called purely aristo- 
eratical. The process by which it passed into tlte 
monarchical form, however limited the supreme power 
of the individual, may be ti^aced to the existence of a 
monarchical principle anterior to their religious oli- 
garchy, and which distinguished the Christian Church 
in its first origin from the Jewish synagogue. The 




we biDw Ironi 



io 



INJDIVIDUAL HEADSHIP OF CHURCH. 



BookB. 



Christians from the first were a purely religious com- 
munity; this was their primary bond of union; they 
had no national law which held them together as a 
separate people. Their civil union was a subordinate 
effect, arising out of their incorporation as a spiritual 
body. The submission of their temporal concerns to the 
adjudication of their own community was a consequence 
of their respect for the superior justice and wisdom 
which sprung from their religious principles, and an 
aversion from the litigious spirit engendered by the 
complicated system of Boman jurisprudence." In their 
Christian Origin they were almost universally a commu- 
SSlSronnd ^*y> foHued, as it were, round an individual. 
an individual, rjij^^ Apostlc, or primitive teacher, was in- 
stalled at once in the oflBce of chief religious functionary ; 
and the chief religious functioneuy is the natural head 
of a purely religious community. Oral instruction, as 
it was the first, so it must have continued to be the 
living, conservative, and expansive principle of the 
community.* It was, anterior to the existence of any 
book, the inspired record and supreme authority of the 
laith. As long as this teacher remained in the city, or 
as often as he returned, he would be recognised as the 



' The Apostle enjoined this secession 
ftom the oixlinary courts of justice. 
1 Cor. vi. 1-8. 

* For some time, indeed, as in the 
Jewish synagogue, what was called 
the gift of prophecy seems to have 
been more general ; any individual 
who professed to speak under the 
direct impulse of the Holy Spirit was 
heard with att^tive reverence. But 
it may be questioned whether this, 
and the display of the other x<H>^^fMra 
:recounted by the Apostle, 1 Cor. zii. | 



4-10, were more than subsidiary to 
the r^ular and systematic teaching 
of the apostolic founder of the com- 
munity. The question is not whether 
each member was not at liberty to 
contribute, by any faculty which had 
been bestowed on him by God, to the 
general edification ; but whether, above 
and anterior to all this, there was not 
some recognised parent of each church, 
who was treated with paternal defer* 
ence, and exercised, when present 
paternal authority. 



Chap. IV. 



THE SENATE OF ELDERS. 



21 



legitimate head of the society. But not only the 
Apostle, in general the primitive teacher likewise, was 
a missionary, travelling incessantly into distant regions 
for the general dissemination of Christianity, rather 
than residing in one spot to organise a local commu- 
nity.** In his absence, the government, and even the 
instruction of the community devolved upon the senate 
of Elders, who were likewise overseers, iiriaKOTrot (no 
doubt the name was used interchangeably for some 
time) ; ^ yet there was still a recognised supremacy in the 
foimder of the church.*^ The wider, however, the dis- 
semination of Christianity, the more rare, and at longer 
intervals, the presence of the Apostle. An appeal to 
his authority, by letter, became more precarious and 
interrupted; while, at the same time, in many com- 
munities, the necessity for his interposition became 
more frequent and manifest ; ® and in the common order 



^ Yet we have an account of a resi- 
dence even of St. Paul of eighteen 
months at Corinth, of two years at 
£phesae,and he was two years during 
his first imprisonment at Rome. Acts 
xviii. 11; ziz. 10; zxviii. 30. 

c I have now read with cai*e the 
best and direst book on this subject, 
Kothe, Anfange derChristlicher Eirche. 
Though my view of the original mo- 
narchical principle is stronger than 
Rothe*s, I see no reason to retract or 
modify my statement. — (1863.) 

Botha's argument, pp. 227'238, 
against what are called Lay Elders 
seems to me conclusiye. 

' St. Paul considered himself in- 
vested with the superintendence of all 
the churches whidi he had planted. 
2 Cor. xi. 28. 



* St. Jerome, quoted by Hooker 
(Eccles, Polity, b. vii. vol. iii. p. 130), 
assigns the origin of episcopacy to the 
dissensions in the Church, which re- 
quired a stronger coercive authority, 
"Till through instinct of the devil, 
there grew ir the chuich factions, ami 
among the people it began to be pro- 
fessed, I am of Paul, I of ApoUos, and 
I of Cephas, churches were governed 
by the common advice of presbyters : 
but when every one began to reckon 
those whom he had baptized his own, 
and not Christ's, it was decreed m the 
whole world that one chosen out of 
the presbyters should be placed above 
the rest, to whom all care of the 
church should belong, and so all seeds 
of schism be removed." 

The government of the churrh 



22 AUTHORITY OF THE BISHOP. Book II. 

of nature, even independent of the danger of petsecfu- 

tion, the primitiye founder, the legitimate head of the 
ccimmunity, would vacate his place by death. That 
tlie Apostle should appoint some distinguished indi- 
vidual as the delegate, the representative, the successor, 
to his authority, us primary instructor of the com- 
munity ; invest him in an episcopacy or overseerahip, 
superior to that of the co-ordinate body of Elders, is, in 
itself, by no means improbable; it harmonises with the 
[leriod in which we discover, in the Sacred Writings, 
this change in the form of tlie permanent government 
of the different bodies ; accounts most easily for the 
general submission to the authority of one religious 
chief magistrate, so unsatisfactorily explained by the 
accidental pre-eminence of the president of a college of 
coequal presbyters ; and is confirmed by general tradi- 
tion, which has ever, in Btrict uniaon with every other 
part of Christian history, preserved the names of many 
successors of the Apostles, the first bishops in most of 
the larger cities in which Christianity was first esta- 
blished. 

But the authority of the bishop was that of influence, 
Ai.thoritjof rather than of power. After the first nomina- 
ine wniiop. jj^jjj ijy ^j^g Apastle (if such nomination, as we 
suppose, generally took place), his successor was elective 
by that kind of acclamation which raised at once the 
individtial most eminent for his piety and virtue to the 
post, which was that of danger, as well as of distinction. 
For a long period, the sufFmges of the community 
ratified the appointment. Episcopal government waa 

ecems to hare been conidilereil e mb- after that, mincles. the gifts of heal- 
gMinste function. "Ajid God hntta ' ing, helps, gocemmeitts, diTeniti« of 
eet wime i]i the church, fiist epostlra, | tongncs." 1 Cor. iil. 28. 
socoiidly prophets, thirdly l*siher» : : 



I 



THE PRESBYTERS. 



tlius, as long as Clmatianity remained unleavened by 
worldly passions and interests, essentially popular. 
The principle of subordination was inseparable from the 
humility of the first converta Eights are never clearly 
defined till they are contested ; nor is authority hmited 
so long as it rests upon general reverence. When, on 
the one side, aggression, on the other, jealousy and 
mistrust, begin, theu it must be fenced by usage and 
defined by law. Thus while I am inclined to consider 
the succession of bishops from the Apostolic times to be 
undeniable, the nature and extent of the authority which 
they derived from the Apostles are altogether uncertain. 
The ordination or consecration, whatever it might be, to 
that office, of itself conveyed neither inspiration nor the 
power of working miracles, which, with the direct com- 
mission from the Lord himself, distinguished and set 
apart the primary Apoatlea from the reat of mankind. 

^m It was only in a very limited and imperfect sense that 

^b they could, even in the sees founded by the Apostles, 

^H be called the successors of the Apostles. 

^^ The presbyters were, in their origin, the ruling powers 
of the young communities ; but in a society founded 
solely on a religious basis, religious qualifications would 
be almost exclusively considered. In the absence, there- 
fore, of the primary teacher, they would assume that 
office likewise. In this they would differ from ^^ prab,. 
the Jewish elders. As the most eminent in "'*■ 
I piety and Christian attainments, they would be advanced 
f by, or at least with, the general consent, to their dig- 
[ niEied station. The same piety and attainments would 
[ designate them as best qualified to keep up and to 
[■ extend the general system of instruction. They would 
I te the regular and perpetual expositors of the Christiac 



24 



OFFICE OF THE DEACONS. 



Book II. 



law ' — ^the reciters of the life, the doctrines, the death, 
the resurrection of Christ ; till the Gospels were written, 
and generally received, they would be the living Evan- 
gelists, the oral Scriptures, the spoken Gospel. They 
would not merely regulate and lead the devotions, 
administer the rites of baptism and the Lord's Supper, 
but repeat again and again, for the further confirma- 
tion of the believers and the conversion of Jews and 
Heathens, the facts and the tenets of the new religion. 
The government, in fact, in communities boimd together 
by Christian brotherhood (such as we may suppose to 
have been the first Christian churches, which were 
happily undistracted by the disputes arising out of the 
Judaical controversy), would be an easy oflSce, and 
entirely subordinate to that of instruction and edifica- 
tion. The communities would be almost self-governed 
by the principle of Christian love which first drew them 
together. The deacons were from the first an inferior 
order, and exercised a purely ministerial office — dis- 
tributing the common fund to the poorer members, 
though the administration of the pecuniary concerns of 
the Church soon became of such importance as to require 
the superintendence of the higher rulers. The other 
functions of the deacons were altogether of a subordinate 
character. 

Such would be the ordinary development of a Chris- 



' Here, likewise, the possessors of 
the x"^^^!"*^"^ would be the casual 
and subsidiary instructors, or rather 
the gifted promoters of Christian pietj, * 
each in his separate sphere, according 
to his distinctive grace. But besides 
these, even if thef were found in all 
churclies, which Ib bj no means clear, 



r^ular and systematic teachers would 
be necessary to a religion which pro- 
bably could only subsist, ceiiainly 
could not propagate itself with activity 
or to any great extent, eicept by this con- 
stant exposition of its principles in the 
public assembly, as well as in the more 
private communications of individual* 



I 

I 



Chap rv. PKCULlAErrYOF THECOEINTHIAN CHUSCH. 25 

tian community, in tlie first case, monarchical, as founded 
by an individual Apostie or recognised teacher of Chris- 
tianity; subsequently, in the absence of that teacher, 
aristocrat ical, under a senate formed according to Jewish 
nsage, though not precisely on Jewish principles ; until, 
the place of the Apostle being supplied by a bishop, in 
a certain sense his representative or successor, it would 
revert to a monarchical form, limited rather by the 
religion itself than by any appointed controlling power. 
As long as the same holy spirit of love and charity 
actuated the whole body, the result would be an harmony, 
not from the counteracting powers of opposing forces, 
but from the consentient will of the general body ; and 
the will of the government would be the expression of 
the universal popular sentiment.* Where, however, 
from the first, the Christian community was formed of 
conflicting parties, or where conflicting prineiples began 
to operate immediately upon the foundation of the 
society, no single person would be generally recognised as 
the authoritative teacher, and the assumption and recog- 
nition of the episcopate would be more slow ; or, indeed, 
would not take place at aU till the final triumph of one of 
the conflicting parties. These communities retained, of 
necessity, the republican form. Such was the cburch of 
state of the Corinthian Church, which was irom eicepHon. 
its origin, or almost immediately after, divided into 



' Such i« the Ibeory of episcopnl 
gDvenunflDt in a pltasDg pRtsaiifi 
in tbe Epistla of Ignaiius: 'Ofl*.' 
■rpirn 6fu» ffui-rpixfi" if tow (t.- 
ffmdroi; Tfil^J!. S**? tol roitne. Tj 
yifi A^utfAfiarrTov dfiSiv rptrrQvripvoVj 
TOO BtSaiiw* dimii ovrlipntiaTii t^ 

hnVlciwittli XOpHnlKlSttpfll^ToDTO 



A7JwTT 'Xritrovz Xpftfroi J^Bcthi koI 

ailKpoiym ivrti in ifiovoiif, XP"I"^ 
BfoZ Xa&iinti ir trintri, iSfTt iv 
^vj fii^ ill 'IijrToC XplOToD T(" 
irnrpl, k.t.\. Ad £phes. p. 12, alit. 
Cotfl. I speak of ihfse epiitka in ■ 



26 



THE FIRST HIERARCHY. 



Book XL 



three separate parties, with a leading teacher or teachers 
at the head of each.^ The Petrine, or the ultra-Judaic, 
the Apolline, or more moderate Jewish party, contested 
the supremacy with the followers of St PauL Different 
individuals possessed, exercised, and even abused dif- 
ferent gifts. The authority of Paul himself appears 
clearly, by his elaborate vindication of his Apostolic 
office, by no means to have been generally recognised. 
No Apostolic head, therefore, would assume an uncon- 
tested supremacy, nor would the parties coalesce in the 
choice of a superior. Corinth, probably, was the last 
community which settled down under tiie general epi- 
scopal constitution. 

The manner and the period of the separation of a 
distinct class, a hierarchy, from the general body of 
the community, and the progress of the great division 
between the clergy and the laity,* are equally obscure 
with the primitive constitution of the Church. Like the 
Judaism of the provinces, Christianity had no sacerdotal 
order. But as the more eminent members of the com- 
mimity were admitted to take the lead, on account of 
their acknowledged religious superiority, from their 
zeal, their talents, their gifts, their sanctity, the general 



^ I was led to conjecture that the 
distracted state of the Church of 
Corinth might induce the Apostles 
to establish elsewhere a more firm 
and vigorous authority, before I re- 
membered the passage of St. Jerome 
quoted aboye, which coincides with 
this view. Corinth has been generally 
takbu as the model of the early Chiis- 
tian constitution ; I suspect that it 
was rather an anomaly. 

I Already the XaUot are a distinct 



class in the Epistle of Clemens to the 
Corinthians (c zl. p. 170, edit. Coteler). 
This epistle is confidently appealed to 
by both parties in the controversy 
about church'goveniment, and alto- 
gether satisfies neither, it is clear, 
however, from the tone of the whole 
epistle, that the Churdi at Corinth 
was anything rather than a model ot 
church-government: it had been rent 
with schisms ever since the <!'&ys oi 
the Apostle. 



Chap. IV. ORDINATION OP BISHOPS* 27 

rererence would, of itself speedily set them apart as of 
a higher order ; they would form the purest aristocracy, 
and soon be divided by a distinct line of demarcation 
from the rest of the community. Whatever the ordina- 
tion might be which designated them for their peculiar 
function, whatever power or authority might be commu- 
nicated by the " imposition of hands," it would add little 
to the reverence with which they were invested. It was 
at first the Christian who sanctified the ftmction, after- 
wards the function sanctified the man. But the civil 
,and religious concerns of the Church were so moulded 
up together, or rather, the temporal were so absorbed 
by the spiritual, that not merely the teacher, but the 
governor — not merely the bishop, properly so called, 
but the presbyter, in his character of ruler as well as 
of teacher — ^shared in the same peculiar veneration. The 
bishop would be necessarily mingled up in the few 
secular affairs of the community, the governors bear 
their part in the religious ceremoniaL In this respect, 
again, they differed from their prototypes, or elders of 
the synagogue. Their office was, of necessity, more 
religious. The admission of members into the Jewish 
synagogue, except in the case of proselytes of righteous- 
ness, was a matter of hereditary right : circumcision was 
a domestic, not a public ceremony. But baptism, or the 
initiation into the Christian community, was a solemn 
ceremonial, requiring previous examination and proba- 
tion. The governing power would possess and exercise 
the authority to admit into the community. They would 
perform, or at all events superintend, the initiatory rite 
of baptism. The other distinctive rite of Christianity, 
the celebration of the Lord's Supper, wotdd require a 
more active interference and co-operation on the part 



BISHOPS PlltST CALLED POKTIFFh. Boo* U. 



of tiioee who preaideil over the comimmity. To this 
there was nothing analogous in the office of the Jewiah 
elder. Order would require that this ceremony should 
be admiiiiatered by certain fiinctionariea. If the bishop 
presided, after his appoiatment, both at the Lord' 
Supper itself and in the agape or feast which followed 
it, the eldere would assist, not merely in maintaining 
order, but would officiate throughout the ceremony. In 
proportion to the reverence for the consecrated elements 
would be the respect towards those under whose especial 
prayers, and in whose hands, probably from the earliest, 
period, they were sanctified for the use of the assembly. 
The presbyters would likewise possess the chief voice, a 
practical initiative, in the nomination of the bishop. 
From all these different functions the presbyters, and 
at length the deacons, became, as well as the bishop, a 
sacred order. But the exclusive or sacerdotal principle 
once admitted in a religious community, its own corpo- 
rate spirit, and the public reverence, would cause it to 
recede further and further, and draw the line of demar- 
cation with greater rigour and depth. They would 
more and more insulate themselves from the common- 
alty of the Christian republic ; they would become a 
senate, a patrician, or a privileged order ; and this se- 
cession into their jieculiar sphere would be greatly 
facilitated by the regular gradations of the faithful and 
the catechumen, the perfect and the imperfect, the 
initiate and half-iuitiate, Christians. The greater the 
variety, the more strict the subordination of ranks. 

Thus the bishop gradually assumed the title of pontiff; 
the preshytere became a sacerdotal order. From the 
Old Testament, and even from paganism, the Christians, 
at first as ennobling metaphors, adopted their sacred 



1 



cbap. it. the peiestlt casix. ^ 

f^peDatkms. InaeDsibly the me«aiing of th^so sigiu« 
ficant titles worked into the Christian system. Thoy 
asBomed, as it were, a privilege of nearer aj^mxaoh to 
the Deity ; and a priestly caste grew rapidly up in a 
religion which, in its primary institution, acknowledged 
only one mediator between earth and heaven, I 
shidl subsequently trace the growth of the si^cordotal 
principle, and the universal estabUshment of the 
hierarchy. 



80 CHRISTUIdTT AND OBIENTALISM. Book O. 



CHAPTER V. 

Christianity and Orientalism. 

Christianity had not only to contend with the Judaism 
Oriental of its nativo region, and the Paganism of the 
reugiona* ^^estem world, but likewise with the Asiatic 
religions, which, in the Eastern provinces of the Boman 
empire, maintained their ground, or mingled themselves 
with the Grecian Polytheism, and had even penetrated 
into Palestine. In the silence of its authentic records, 
the direct progress of Christianity in the East can neither 
be accurately traced nor clearly estimated ; its conflict 
with Orientalism is chiefly visible in the influence of 
the latter upon the general system of Christianity, and 
in the tenets of the different sects which, from Simon 
Magus to Manes, attempted to reconcile the doctrines 
of the Gospel with the theogonical system of Asia. In 
the West Christianity advanced with gradual, but un- 
obstructed and unreceding, progress, till, first the Boman 
Empire, and successively the barbarous nations who 
occupied or subdued the rest of Europe, were brought 
within its pale. No new religion arose to dispute its 
supremacy ; and the feeble attempt of Julian to raise 
up a Platonic Paganism in opposition to the religion of 
Christ must have failed, even if it had not been cut 
short in its first growth by the death of its imperial 
patron. In Asia, the progress of Christianity was sud- 
denly arrested by the revival of Zoroastrianism, after 
the restoration of the Persian kingdom upon the ruiiw 



Chap, V. 



INFLUENCE OF ORIENTALISM, 



31 



of the Parthian monarchy ; and, at a later period, the 
vestiges of its former success were almost entirely obli- 
terated by the desolating and all-absorbing conquests of 
Mohammedanism. The Armenian was the only national 
church which resisted alike the persecuting edicts of the 
Sassanian fire-worshippers, and, submitting to the yoke 
of the Mohammedan conqueror, rejected the worship of 
the Prophet. The other scattered communities of Chris- 
tians, disseminated through various parts of Asia, on the 
coast of Malabar, perhaps in China, have no satisfactory 
evidence of Apostolic or even of very early date : they 
are so deeply impregnated with the Nestorian system of 
Christianity, which, during the interval between the 
decline of the reformed Zoroastrianism and the first 
outburst of Islamism, spread to a great extent throughout 
every part of the Eastern continent,* that there is every 
reason to suppose them Nestorian in their origin.'' Tlie 
contest, then, of Christianity with the Eastern reUgions 
must be traced in their reaction upon the new religion 
of the West By their treacherous alliance, they pro- 
bably operated more extensively to the detriment of the 
Evangelic religion than Paganism by its open opposition. 
Asiatic influences have worked more completely into 
the body and essence of Christianity than any other 
£[Nreign elements; and it is by no means improbable 
that tenets, which had their origin in India, have for 
many centuries predominated in, or materially afiected 
the Christianity of the whole Western world. 
Palestine was admirably situated to become the centre 



* There is an extremely good view 
of the origin and history of the Chris- 
tian oommmiitieB m India, in BoUen, 
Das alte Indien. 



^ Compare the new edition of Gib- 
hon and the editor's note on the 
Nestorian ChristiaDs with the famon* 
inscription of Siganfo, Tiii. 347. 



82 SITUATION OF PALESTINB — JUDAISM. 3ook It 

and point of emanation for an nniversal religion. On the 
sitnatkmof confincs of Asla and Europe, yet sufficiently 
fltvoorawe socluded from both to be out of the way of 
religion. the constant flux and reflux of a foreign popu- 
lation, it commanded Egypt, and, through Egypt, asso- 
ciated Africa with the general moral kingdom. But it 
was not merely calculated for the birthplace of an uni- 
versal faith by its local position. Judaism, as 
it were, in its character (putting out of sight, 
for an instant, its divine origin) stood between the 
religions of the East and the West. It was the con^ 
necting link between the European and the Asiatic 
mind. In speculative sublimity, the doctrine of the 
Divine Unity soared to an equal height with the vast 
and imaginative cosmogonies of the East, while in its 
practical tendencies it approximated to the active and 
rational genius of the West. 

The religions of Asia appear, if not of regularly 
affiliated descent, yet to possess a common and generic 
character, modified, indeed, by the genius of the difierent 
people, and, perhaps, by the prevailing tone of mind in 
the authors and founders of new doctrines. From the 
banks of the Ganges, probably from the shores of the 
Yellow Sea and the coasts of further India, to the Phoe- 
nician borders of the Mediterranean and the undefined 
limits of Phrygia in Asia Minor, there was that con- 
nexion and similitude, that community of certain 
elementary principles, that tendency to certain combi- 
nations of physical and moral ideas, which may be 
expressed by the term Orientalism.® The speculative 



* Compare Windischman, Philo- 
sophie in fortgang der Welt Geschichte. 



I may venture to say. a disciple, of 
F. Sohl^, and beJonga to the high 



Windischmou was a friend, I belieye i Roman Catholic school in Germany. 



CuAP. V. C^AiiACTEE OP OfiliasiALlSM. 33 

theology of the higher, the sacerdotal, order, which 
in some countries left the superatitions of General 

ch&r&icti6i* of 

the vulgar undisturbed, or allowed their own oneutausm. 
more sublime conceptions to be lowered to their rude 
and limited material notions, aspired to the primal 
Source of Being. The Emanation system of India, 
according to which the whole worlds flowed from the 
Godhead and were finally to be reabsorbed into it; 
the Pantheism into which this degenerated, and which 
made the collective Universe itself the Deity; the 
Dualism of Persia, according to which the antagonist 
powers were created by, or proceeded from, the One 
Supreme and Uncreated ; the Chaldean doctrine of 
divine Energies or Intelligences, the prototypes of the 
Cabalistic Sephiroth, and of the later Gnostic -Sons, the 
same, no doubt, under different names, with the -Son 
and Protogenes, the Genos and Genoa, with their 
regularly-coupled descendants in the Phoenician cos- 
mogony of Sanchoniathon ; and finally, the primitive 
and simpler worship of Egjrpt; all these are either 
branches of one common stock, or expressions of the 
same state of the human mind, working with kindred 
activity on the same visible phenomena of nature, and 
with the same object. 

The Asiatic mind impersonated, though it did not, 
with the Greek, humanise everything. Light and Dark- 
ness, Good and Evil, the Creative and Destructive 
energy of nature, the active and passive Powers of 
generation, moral Perfection and Wisdom, Beason and 
Speech, even Agriculture and the Pastoral life, eoch 
was a distinct and intelligent being ; they wedded each 



His book, which is fall of abstruse 
thought and learnings developes the 



theory of a primitiTe txmUtion iliSoMd 
through the East 



VOL. II. D 



34 DNIVEHSAL PRIMAItY TEISCIPLE. Book IL 

other according to their apparent correapondences ; they 
begat progeny according to the natural affiliation oi 
eonsequence of ideas. 

One great elementary principle pervaded the whole 
religious systems of the East, the connexiou of mor^ 
Eimijot with phygiced ideas, the inliereat purity, the 
Miiutnit diviniti/, of mind or spirit, the inalienable evU 
Mum. of its oMagonist, matter. Whether Matter 
roexisted with the First Great Canse ; whether it was 
created by his power, but from its innate malignity 
became insubordinate to his will ; whether it was ex- 
traneous to bis existence, necessarily subsisting, though 
without form, till its inert and shapeless mass was 
worked upon by the Deity himself, or by his primal 
Power or Emanation, the Demiurge or Creator of the 
existing worlds : on these points the different national 
creeds were endlessly diversified. But in its varioua 
forms, die principle itself was the nniversal doctrine of 
the Eastern world; it was developed in their loftiest 
philosophy (in fact, their higher philosophy and their 
speculative religion were the same thing) ; it gave a 
kind of colouring even to their vulgar superstition, and 
operated, in many cases almost to an incredible extent, 
on their social and political system. 

This great primal tenet is alike the elementary prin- 
rueiinixT- ciple of the higher Brahminism and the more 
pnncit'icl^ moral Buddhism of India and the remoter 
East. The theory of the division of castes supposes that 
a larger portion of the pure miud of the Deity is infused 
into the sacerdotal and superior orders ; they are nearer 
the Deity, and with more immediate hope of being 
reabsorbed into the divine essence ; while the lower 
classes ai^e more inextricably immersed in the grosser 
matter of the world, their feeble portion of the essential 



I 



I 



CUAP. V, 



SOURCE OF ASCETICISM. 



35 



spirit of the Divinity contracted and lost in the pre- 
dominant mass of corruption and malignity.^ The 
Buddhist, substituting a moral for a hereditary ap- 
proximation to the pure and elementary mind, rests, 
nevertheless, on the same primal theory, and carries the 
notion of the abstraction of the spiritual part from the 
foul and corporeal being to an equal, if not a greater, 
height of contemplative mysticism.® Hence the sanctity 
of fire among the Persians ; ' that element which is most 
subtle and defaecated from all material corruption ; it is 
therefore the representative of pure elementary mind, 
of Deity itselfc^ It exists independent of the material 
forms in which it abides, the sun and the heavenly 
bodies. To infect this holy element with any excretion 
or emanation from the material form of man ; to con- 
taminate it with the putrescent effluvia of the dead and 
soulless corpse, was the height of guilt and impiety. 

This one simple principle is the parent of that Asce- 
ticism which maintained its authority among source of 
all the older religions of the remoter East, ^«^^<^^ 
forced its way at a very early period into Christianity, 
where, for some centuries, it exercised a predominant 
influence, and subdued even the active and warlike 



' The self-existing power declared 
the purest part of him to be the 
mnatii. Since the Brahmen sprang 
from the most excellent part; since 
he was the first-bom, and since he 
possesses the Veda, he is by right the 
chief of the whole creation. Jones's 
Menu, i. 92, 93. 

* See the tracts of Mahony, Join- 
rille, Hodgson, and Wilson, in the 
JUiatio Besearches; Schmidt^ Ga»- 



chichte der Ost Mongolen ; Bergman, 
Nomadische Streifereyen, &c. 

' Hyde, De Relig. Persainim, p. 13, 
et alibi. Kleuker, Anhang znm 
2^dayesta, toI. i. p. 116, 117. 
De Guigniaut, Religions de TAnti- 
quit^ 1. ii. c. 3, p. 333. 

' Elenker, Anhang sum Zendavesta^ 
ToL i. pt 2, p. 147. De Guigniaut, 
nbi n]]inu 



c 



D 2i 



i6 CELIBACY. Book tt 



genius of Mohammedanism to its dreamy and ecstatic 
influeni:e. On the cold table-lands of 'rbibet, in the 
forests of India, among the busy populatiun of China, 
on the burning shores of Siam, in Egypt and in Poles- 
tine, in Christianised Europe, iu Mohammedaniaed Asia, 
the worshipper of the Lama, the Faquir, the Bonze, the 
Talapoin, the Easene, the Therapeutist, the Monk, and 
the Dervish, have vfithdrawn from the society of man, 
in order to abstract the pure mind from the dominion of 
foul and corrupting matter. Under each system, tha 
perfection of human nature was estrangement from the 
influence of the senses, — those senses which were 
slaved to the material elements of the world ; an 
approximation to the essence of the Deity, by a total 
secession from the affairs, the interests, the passions, 
the thoughts, the common being and nature of man. 
The practical operation of this elementary principle of 
Eastern religion has deeply influenced the whole history 
of man. But it had made no progress in Europe till 
after the introduction of Christianity. The manner in 
which it allied itself with, or rather incorporated itself 
into, a system, to the original nature and design of 
which it appears altogether foreign, will form a most 
important and perhaps not uninteresting chapter in the 
History of Christianity. 

Celibacy was the offspring of Asceticism, but it does 
^^ not appear absolutely essential to it ; whether 
insulted nature reasserts its rights, and recoit 
ciles to the practice that which is in apparent opposition 
to the theory, or whether it revenges, as it were, this 
rebellion of nature on one point, by its more violent 
and succeasM invasions upon its imconquerable pro- 
liensities on others. The Muni in India is accompanied 



1 

I 

I 

I 

1 

I 



Chap. V. 



EASTEBN ASCETICISM. 



37 



by his wife, who shares his solitude, and seems to offer 
no impediment to his sanctity,** though in some cases it 
may be that all connubial intercourse is sternly re- 
nounced. In Palestine, the Essene, in his higher state 
of perfection, stood in direct opposition to the spirit of 
the books of Moses, on which he still looked with the 
profoundest reverence, by altogether refraining from 
marriage. It was perhaps in this form that Eastern 
Asceticism first crept into Christianity. It assumed the 
elevating and attractive character of higher personal 
purity; it drew the line of demarcation more rigidly 
against the loose morality of the Heathen ; it afforded 
the advantage of detaching the first itinerant preachers 
of Christianity more entirely from worldly interests ; 
enabled them to devote their whole undistracted atten- 
tion to the propagation of the Faith, and left them, as it 
were, more loose from the world, ready to break the 
few and slender ties which connected them with it at 
the first summons to a glorious martyrdom.* But it 
was not, as we shall presently observe, tiU Gnosticism 
began to exercise its influence on Christianity^ that, 



^ Abandoning all food eaten in 
towns, and all his household utensils, 
let him repair to the lonely wood, 
committing the care of his wife to his 
sons, or accompanied by her, if she 
choose to attend him. Sir W. Jones's 
Menu, vi. 3. I venture to refer to 
the pathetic tale of the heimit with 
his wife and son, from the Mah& BhSir 
rata, in my translations from the 
Sanaki'it. Compare Vishnu Puraua, 
p. 295. 

In the veiy curious account of the 
Buddhist monks (the SofuCvaioi — the 
Schamans) in Porphyi-ius de Absti- 
nently, lib. It. 17, the Buddhist ascetic 



abandons his wife ; and this in general 
agrees with the Buddhist theory. 
Female contact is unlawful to the 
Buddha ascetic. See a curious in- 
stance in Mr. Wilson's Hindu Theatre 
— The Toycartf Act viii., in fine. 

* Clement of Alexandria, however, 
asseils that St. Paul was i-eally mar- 
ried, but left his wife behind him, 
lest siie should inteifere with his 
ministry. This is his inteipretation 
of 1 Cor, ix, 5. 

^ TertuUian adv. Marc. i. 29. Non 
tingitur apud ilium caro, nisi virgo, 
nisi vidua, nisi csehbs, nisi divortio 
baptismum mereatui . . . nee prsescri* 



88 



GEECIAN AND BOMAN SYSTEMS. 



Book II. 



emulous of its dangerous riyal, or infected with its 
foreign opinions, the Church, in its general sentiment, 
espoused and magnified the pre-eminent virtue of 
celibacy."* 

The European mind of the older world, as repre- 
unknownin scuted bv the Grccks and Eomans, repelled 

Grr6€06 And 'a 

Rome. for a loug time, in the busy turmoil of political 

development and the absorbing career of war and con- 
quest, this principle of inactivity and secession from the 
ordinary affairs of life. No sacerdotal caste established 
this principle of superiority over the active warrior, or 
even over the laborious husbandman. With the citizen 
of the stirring and factious republics of Greece, the 
highest virtue was of a purely political and practical 
character. The whole man was public : his indivi- 
duality, the sense of which was continually suggested 
and fostered under the other system, was lost in the 
member of the commonwealtL That which contributed 
nothing to the service of the state was held in no 
respect. The mind, in its abstracted flights, obtained 
little honour ; it was only as it worked upon the welfare, 
the amusement, or the glory of the republic, that its 
dignity was estimated. The philosopher might discuss 
the comparative superiority of the practical or the con- 
templative life, but his loftiest contemplations were 
occupied with realities, or what may be considered 



bimus sed suademus sanctitatem . . . 
tunc denique conjugium exerts de- 
feodentes cum inimic^ accusatur spur- 
citiae nomine in destructionem creatoris 
qui proinde conjugium pro rei hones- 
tate benedixit, incrementum generis 
humani . . . 

"^ Compai-e the whole argument of 
the third book of the Stromata of 



Clement of Alexandria. In one pas- 
sage he condemns celibacy, as leading 
to misanthropy, ^vyopa Sc tiras r-p 
irptxpaffti Tov ydfiov ot fx^y inrtffxv 
fi4yoi ro6roUf fiii Karh r^y ayiay 
yvwnyf tU (iwayBpomiaif lire^phiiraVj 
KoX rb ri]s kydinis otx^TCU xap* 
abroh. Sti'om. iii. 9. 



Ghak v. PLATO. 39 

idealising those realities to a higher degree of perfec- 
tion : to make good citizens was the utmost ambition of 
his wisdom ; an Utopia was his heaven. The Cynic, who 
in the East^ or in Europe after it became impregnated 
with Eastern doctrines, would have retired into the 
des^ to his solitary hermitage, in order to withdraw 
himself entirely from the common interests, sentiments, 
and connexions of mankind; in Greece, took up his 
station in the crowded forum, or, pitching his tub in the 
midst of the concourse at the public games, inveighed 
against the vices and follies of mankind. Plato, if he 
had followed the natural bent of his genius, 
might have introduced, and indeed did intro- 
duce, as much as the Grecian mind was capable of 
imbibing of this theory of the opposition of mind and 
matter, with its ordinary consequences. The com- 
munities of his older master Pythagoras, who had pro- 
bably visited the East, and drank deep of the Oriental 
mysticism, approached in some respects nearer to the 
contemplative character of monastic institutions. But 
the active mind of the Greek predominated ; and the 
followers of Pythagoras, instead of founding coenobitic 
institutions, or secluding themselves in meditative soli- 
tude, settled some of the flourishing republics of Magna 
Grsecia. The great master, in whose steps Plato pro- 
fessed to tread more closely, was so essentially prac- 
tical and unimaginative, as to bind his followers down 
to a less Oriental system of philosophy. While, there- 
fore, in his Timaeus, Plato attempted to harmonise parts 
of the cosmogonical theories of Asia with the more 
humanised mythology of Greece, the work which waif 
more accordant to the genius of his country, was his 
Kepublic, in which all his idealism was, as it were, con- 
fined to the earth. Even his religion, though of mu6b 



40 PHILOSOPHY OF ROME. Book It 

sublimer cast than the popular guperstition, was yet 
considered chiefly in its practical operation on the 
welfare of the state. It was his design to eleyate 
humanity to a higher state of moral dignity ; to culti- 
vate the material body as well as the immaterial soul, 
to the height of perfection ; not to sever, as far as 
possible, the connexion between these ill-assorted com- 
panions, or to Avithdraw the purer mind from its social 
and political sphere, into solitary and inactive com- 
munion with the Deity. 

In Kome, the general tendency of the national mind 

was still more essentially public and political. 

In the Eepublic, except in a few less distin- 
guished men, the Laelii and the Attici, even their philo- 
sophy was an intellectual recreation between the more 
pressing avocations of their higher duties : it was either 
to brace and mature the mind for future service to the 
state, or as a solace in hours of disappointed ambition 
or the haughty satiety of glory. Civil science was the 
end and aim of all their philosophic meditation. Like 
their ancient king, if they retired for communion with 
the Egeria of philosophy, it was in order to bring forth, 
on their return, more ample stores of political and legis- 
lative wisdom. Under the imperial government, they 
took refuge in the lofty reveries of the porch, as they 
did in inordinate luxuiy, from the degradation and 
enforced inactivity of servitude. They fled to the phi- 
losophic retirement, iBrom the barrenness, in all high or 
stirring emotions, which had smitten the Senate and the 
Oomitia; still looking back with a vain but lingering 
hope that the State might summon them again from 
retirement without dignity, from a contemplative life, 
which by no means implied an approximation to the 
divine, but rather a debasement of the human nature^ 



Ceap. V. ORIENTALISM IN WESTEEN ASIA, 41 

Some, indeed, degraded their high tone of philosophy 
by still mingling in the servile politics of the day: 
Seneca Hyed and died the votary and the victim of 
court intrigue. The Thraseas stood aloof, not in ec- 
static meditation on the primal Author of Being, but on 
the departed liberties of Borne; their soul aspired no 
higher than to unite itself with the ancient genius of the 
Republic. 

Orientalism had made considerable progress towards 
the West before the appearance of Christianity, orientalism 
While the popular Pharisaism of the Jews had Asia.^* 
embodied some o£ the more practical tenets of Zoroas- 
trianism, the doctrines of the remoter East had foimd a 
welcome reception with the Essene. Yet even with 
him, regular and unintermitting labour, not inert and 
meditative abstraction, was the principle of the ascetic 
community. It might almost seem that there subsisted 
some secret and indelible congeniality, some latent con- 
sanguinity, whether from kindred, common descent, or 
from conquest, between the caste-divided population on 
the shores of the Ganges, and the same artificial state 
of society in the valley of the Nile, so as to assimilate in 
80 remarkable a manner their religion.^ It is certain, 
that the genuine Indian mysticism first established a 
permanent western settlement in the deserts of Egypt 
Its first combination seems to have been with the 
Egyptian Judaism of Alexandria, and to have arisen 
from the dreaming Flatonism, which in the schools of 
that city had been engrafted on the Mosaic Institutes. 



■ Bohlen's work, Das alte Indien, 
of which the excellence in all other 



collected concerning India, will be 
universally acknowledged, is writtet 



respects, as a condensed abstract oJ | to maintain the theoiy of the earl| 
all that our own countrymen and thu | connexion of India and Egypt. 
icholarB of Germany and France ba^t 



42 EOYPTUN MTSTIGISM. Book IL 

The Egyptian IHonks were the lineal descendants of the 
Jewish Therapeutae, described by Philo.® Though the 
Therapeutse, like the Essenes, were in some respectB a 
productive community, yet they approached much nearer 
to the contemplative and indolent fraternities of the 
farther East. The arid and rocky desert around them 
was too stubborn to make much return to their less 
regular and less systematic cultivation ; visionary indo- 
lence would grow upon them by degrees. The com- 
munities either broke up into the lairs of solitary 
hermits, or were constantly throwing oflf their more 
enthusiastic votaries deeper into the desert : the severer 
mortifications of the flesh required a more complete 
isolation from the occupations, as well as the amuse- 
ments or enjoyments of life. To change the wilderness 
into a garden by patient industry, was to enthral the 
spirit in some degree to the service of the body ; and in 
process of time, the principle was carried to its height. 
The more dreary the wilderness, the more unquestioned 
the sanctity of its inhabitant ; the more complete and 
painful the privation, the more holy the worshipper; 
the more the man put off his own nature, and sank 
below the animal to vegetative existence, the more con- 
summate his spiritual perfection. The full growth of 
this system was of a much later period ; it did not come 
to maturity till after Christianity had passed through its 
conflict with Gnosticism; but its elements were, no 
doubt, floating about in the different western regions of 
Asia, and either directly through Gnosticism, or from 
the emulation of the two sects, which outbid each other, 
as it were, in austerity, it worked, at length, into the 
very intimate being of the Gospel religion. 



• Philonis Opera. Mangef, yoI iL p. 471. 



Chap. V. ORIENTALISM AND CHRISTIANITY UNITE. 43 

The singular feKcity, the skill and dexterity, if I 
may so speak, with which Christianity at first combination 
wound its way through these conflicting ele- ?i^^' 
ments, combining what was pure and lofty in ChriBtianity. 
each, in some instances unavoidably speaking their 
language, and simplifying, harmonising, and modifying 
each to its own peculiar system, increases our admiration 
of its unrivalled wisdom, its deep insight into the uni- 
versal nature of man, and its pre-acquaintance, as it 
were, with the countless diversities of human character 
prevailing at the time of its propagation. But, unless 
the same profound wisdom had watched over its in- 
violable preservation, which presided over its origin; 
unless it had been constantly administered with the 
same superiority to the common passions and interests 
and speculative curiosity of man, a reaction of the 
several systems over which it prevailed was inevitable. 
On a wide and comprehensive survey of the whole his- 
tory of Christianity, and considering it as left altogether 
to its own native force and impulse, it is difficult to 
estimate how far the admission, evien the predominance, 
of these foreign elements, by which it was enabled to 
maintain its hold on different ages and races, may not 
have contributed both to its original success and its 
final permanence. The Eastern asceticism outbid 
Christianity in that austerity, that imposing self- 
sacrifice, that intensity of devotion, which acts with the 
greatest rapidity, and secures the most lasting authority 
over rude and unenlightened minds. By coalescing to 
a certain point with its antagonist, it embraced within 
its expanding pale those who would otherwise, according 
to the spirit of their age, have been carried beyond its 
sphere by some enthusiasm more popular and better 
suited to the genius of the time, or the temperament of 



44 



RISE OF MONASTICISM. 



6o(SlI. 



the individual. K it lost in purity, it gained in power, 
perhaps in permanence. No doubt, in its first contest 
with OrientaJism were sown those seeds which grew up 
at a later period into Monasticism ; it rejected the 
tenets, but admitted the more insidious principle of 
Gnosticism ; yet there can be little doubt that in the 
dark ages, the monastic spirit was among the great con- 
servative and influential elements of Christianity. 

The form in which Christianity first encountered this 
wide-spread Orientalism, was either Gnosticism,^ or, if 
that philosophy had not then become consolidated into 
a system, those opinions which subsequently grew up 
into that prevalent doctrine of Western Asia. The first 



1^ lu this new of Gnostidftm, be- 
sides coDstant reference to the original 
authorities, I most acknowledge my 
obligations to Brucker, Hist. Phil. vol. 
ii. p. 1, c. 3; to Mosheim, De Reb. 
Christ, ante Const. Mag.; to Beau- 
sobre, Hist, du Mauichelsme ; but 
above all, to the excellent Histoire du 
Gnosticisme, by M. Matter of Stras- 
burg, 2 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1828. Since 
the first publication of this work new 
light has been thrown on Gnosticism 
and the Gnostic Teaching by the dis- 
covery of the (impeifect) Philosophu- 
mena, Brst erroneously attributed to 
Origen by the editor E. Miller, first 
and conclusively proved by the learn- 
ing and sagacity of Bunsen to be the 
work of Hippolytus, Bishop of Porto 
near Rome, in the eai-ly part of the 
thiixl century. On this point almost 
all are agreed — even Bunsen's most 
learned antagonists on other questions 
raised by this book. Dr. Wordsworth 
and DoUinger. On this controversy 
I have expressed my judgement fully 



in a note to Latin Christianity, vol. i. 
p. 35. I think Bunsen triumphant 
in most points. In the Epistles to 
Archdeacon Hare, and in the Analecta 
published by Bunsen, in his great 
w^ork Christianity and Mankind, will 
be found selected and illustrated the 
chief texts of the Philosophumena 
which bear on the rise and develop- 
ment of Gnosticism. Perhaps, as 
usual, Bunsoi's bold and imaginative 
divination sees much which eyes not 
less keen, but endowed with less 
magnifying powers, will fail to dis- 
cern. 

Besides this work, the Christliche 
Gnosis of Baor, and the mature opi- 
nions of Neander in the second edition 
of his History, will satisfy i-caders who 
care to plunge into that dim labyrinth 
of Gnosticism, and to investigate its 
mysteries at greater length than the 
extent and proportions of my work, 
and my judgement as to the import- 
ance of such researches, peimit me tt 
expand into.— (1863.) 



Chap. V. 



SIMON MAGUS. 



45 



CHnum Magna 



Orientalist was Simon Magus. In the conflict with St 
Peter, related in the Acts, nothing transpires 
as to the personal history of this remarkable 
man, excepting the extensive success with which he had 
practised his magical arts in Samaria, and the Oriental 
title which he assumed — " the Power of God." .His 
first overtures to the Apostle appear as though he were 
desirous of conciliating the friendship and favour of the 
new teacher, and would not have been unwilling to 
have acted a subordinate part in the formation of his 
increasing sect. But from his first rejection, Simon 
Magus was an opponent, if there be any truth in the 
wild legends, which are still extant, the rival, of Chris- 
tianity.^ On the arrival of the Christian teachers in 
Samaria, where, up to that period, his influence had pre- 
dominated, Simon paid homage to the reality of his 
miracles, by acknowledging their superiority to his own. 
Still, it should seem that he only considered them as 
more adroit wonder-workers, or, as is more probable, 
possessed of some peculiar secrets beyond his own know- 
ledge of the laws of nature, or, possibly (for imposture 
and superstition are ever closely allied), he may have 
supposed that they had intercourse with more powerful 
Spirits or Intelligences than his own. Jesus was to him 
either some extraordinary proficient in magic, who had 
imparted his prevailing gifts to his followers, the Apostles ; 
or some superior genius, who lent himself to their bid- 



4 It is among the most hopeless 
difficulties in early Christian history 
to decide, to one*s own satis&ction, 
what groundwork of truth there may 
be in those works which bear the 
name of St. Clement, and relate the 
contests of St. Peter and Simon Magus. 



That in their present form they are a 
kind of religious romance, few will 
doubt; but they are certainly of great 
antiquity, and it is difficult to sup* 
pose them either pure invention or 
mere embellishmoits of the simple 
history in the Acts. 



46 



bIMON MAGUS. 



BooKiL 



ding ; or what Simon asserted himself to be, some power 
emanating more directly from the primal Deity. The 
"gift of the Holy Ghost" seemed to commmiieate a 
great portion, at least, of this magic influence, and to 
place the initiated in possession of some mighty secrets, 
or to endow him with the control of some potent spirits. 
Simon's offer of pecuniary remuneration betrays at once 
either that his own object was sordid, as he suspected 
theirs to be ; or, at the highest, he sought to increase, by 
a combination with them, his own reputation and in- 
fluence. Nor, on the indignant refusal of St. Peter, 
does his entreaty for their prayers, lest he should incur 
the wrath of their offended Deity, by any means imply 
a more accurate and Christian conception of their reli- 
gion ; it is exactly the tone of a man, half impostor and 
half enthusiast, who trembles before the offended anger 
of some mightier superhuman being, whom his inef- 
fectual magic has no power to control or to appease. 
We collect no more than this from the narrative in the 
Acts.' 

Yet, unless Simon was in fact a personage of con- 
siderable importance during the early history of Chris- 
tianity, it is diificult to accoimt for his becoming, as he 
is called by Beausobre, the hero of the Romance of 
Heresy. K Simon was the same with that magician, a 
Cypriot by birth, who was employed by Felix as agent 
in his intrigue to detach Drusillafrom her husbandj'^this 
part of his character accords with the charge of licentious- 
ness advanced both a&rainst his life and his doctrines by 
his Christian opponents. This is by no mea^ in^pn^ 
bable; and indeed, even if he was not a person thus 



» Acts viii. 9, 24. 

* Joseph. Ant. xx. 5, 2. Compaie 



Krebt and Koinoel, jx Ixo Act 
Apoit. 



Chap. Y. 



HIS CHARACTEE AND TENETS. 



47 



politically prominent and influential, the early writers 
of Christianity would scarcely have concurred in repre- 
senting him as a formidable and dangerous antagonist 
of the Faith, as a kind of personal rival of St. Peter, 
without some other groundwork for the fiction besides 
the collision recorded in the Acts. The doctrines which 
are ascribed to him and to his followers, who continued 
to exist for two or three centuries,* harmonise with the 
glimpse of his character and tenets in the writings of 
St Luke. 

Simon probably was one of that class of adventurers 
which abounded at this period, or like Apollo- Hismicha- 
nius of Tyana and others at a later time, with tenets. 
whom the opponents of Christianity attempted to con- 
found Jesus and his Apostles. His doctrine was Ori- 
ental in its language and in its pretensions." He was 
the first JEon or Emanation, or rather perhaps the first 
manifestation of the primal Deity. He assumed not 
merely the title of the Great Power or Virtue of God, 
but all the other appellations — the Word, the Perfec- 
tion, the Paraclete, the Almighty, the whole combined 
attributes of the Deity .^ He had a companion, 

TTi T 1 nix His Helena. 

Helena, according to the statement of his 
enemies, a beautiful prostitute,y whom he found at Tyre, 



* Origen denies the existence of 
living Simoiuans in his day (Contra 
Gels. lib. i.) ; which implies that they 
had subsisted nearly up to that time. 

» Irenaus, lib. i. c. 20; the fullest 
of the early authorities on Simon. 
Compare Grabe's notes. The personal 
conflict with St. Peter in Rome, and the 
fiuDOUB inscription <*Semoni Sanco," 
must, 1 think, bo abandoned to legend. 
That Simon was a heresiarch, and a 



heresiarch of great power and wide 
influence, not a mythical personage 
created out of the passage in the Acts 
of the Apostles, is further and still 
more conclusively shown in tlie Sixth 
Book of the Philosophumena. 

* Ego sum Sermo Del, ego sum 
Spedosus, efp Paracletus, ego Om- 
nipotens, ego omnia Dei. Hieronym. 
in Matth. Op. iv. 114. 

^ IrenxuB, as above* 



48 SmOK'S HELESA. 

who became in like manner the first conception (the 
Ennoaa) of the Deity ; but who, by her conjanction with 
matter, had been enslaved to its malignant influence, 
and having fallen under the power of evil angels, had 
been ia a constant state of transmigration, and among 
other mortal bodies, had occupied that of the famoua 
Helen of Troy. Eeausobre,' who elevates Simon into a 
Platonic philosopher, explains the Helena as a sublime 
allegory. She was the Psyche of his philosophic ro- 
mance. The soul, by evil influences, had become impri- 
soned in matter. By her the Deity had created the 
angels : the angels, enamoured of her, bad hiextricably 
entangled her in that pollutiag bondage, in order to 
prevent her return to lieaven. To fly from their em- 
braces, she had passed from body to body. Connecting 
this fiction with the Grecian mythology, she was Mi- 
nerva, or impersonated Wisdom ; " perhaps, also, Helena, 
or embodied Beauty-'' 

It is by no meaiia inconsistent with the character of 
Orientalism, or with the spirit of the times, to reconcile 
much of these different theories. According to the 
Eastern system of teaching by symbolic action, Simon 
may have carried about a hving and real illustration of 
his allegory: his Helena may have been to his dis- 
ciples the mystic image of an Emanation from the 
divine Mind ; her native purity, indeed, originally 



1 





mena, vi. p. 176. 


i.35. 


^ VfTisi.elKO.Tayiyoi^l'^ir-iuvaiilt 




/Tipatrtrt rii iy Kitrfiff tayi^ta 


statural of Simon BsZeiis, nf Hrtea bs 


bii Ti S.-uiripSA*Toy Q^Tfls iroXAoi, 


AUiene. Elic^fB Tt toO II^b^oi 


p. 174. Tha Trojan war wcms to 


Ixo-"" *'i ^lis I^Pf*!', Ill "ii 


l.ive b™ hdd fls a tj-pf of this strife 


•ZKiin,! h /uip*ij Afluvai, icn3 tb*to5 


umong tm world-ruling angaU, raaarf 




by Helen. 


p.™, t),» Si i.«pto. PhilliM-phU- 





I 



I Chap. V. PROBABILITY OF HISTORY OF SIMON, 4fi 

defiled by the contagious maligiiity of matter, bnt 
under the guidance of the Hierophant, or rather by licr 
sanctifying association with the " Power of God," either 
soaring again to her primal sanctity, or even while the 
grosser body was still abandoned to ita inalienable cor- 
ruption, emancipating the uninfected and unparticipant 
soul from all the depravation, almost from the eonseiouB- 
neas, of corporeal indulgence. Be this as it Pnn»wi% 
may; whether the opinions of Simon were otsinion. 
derived from Platooiem, or, as it is much more likely, 
immediately from Eastern sources, liis history is singu- 
larly characteristic of the state of the public mind at 
this period of the world. A man assuming the lofty 
appellation of the Power of God, and, with his female 
associate, personating the male and female Energies or 
Intelligences of the Deity, appears to our colder Euro- 
pean reason a fiction too monstrous even for the prover- 
bial credulity of human kind. But this Magianiam 
of Bimon must be considered in reference to the whole 
theory of theurgy or magic, and the prevalent theosophy 
or notions of the divine nature. In the East, supersti- 
tion had in general repudiated the grossly material 
forms in which the Western anthropomorphism had 
embodied ita gods ; it remained more spiritual, but it 
made up for tliis by the fajitastic manner in which 
it multiplied the gradations of spiritual beings more 
or less remotely connected with the first great Supreme. 
The more subtile the spirits, in general they were the 
more beneficent; the more intimately associated with 
matter, the more malignant. The avowed object of 
Simon was to destroy the authority of the evil spirits, 
and to emancipate mankind from their control. This 
peopling of the universe with s regularly descending 
ksuccessiou of beings was common to the whole East'. 
VOL. IL E 



50 



THE SIMONIAN DOCTEIxNE 



perhaps, in great part, to the West, The later Jewish 
■loctrine of angels and devils approached nearly to it ; it 
liirked in Platouism, and assumed a higher form in the 
Eastern cosmogonies. In thfeae it not merely assigned 
guardian or hostile heings to individuals or to nations, 
but its peculiar creator to the material universe, from 
which it aspired altogether to keep aloof the origin and 
iiuthor of the spiritual world ; though the latter superior 
and benignant Being was ordinarily introduced as inter- 
fering in some manner to correct, to sanctify, and to 
spiritualise the world of man ; and it was in accordance 
with this part of the theory that Simon proclaimed 
himself the representative of Deity. That such was the 
Simonian doctrine, I think there can be no doubt ; a 
very small part, however, only its elementary notions, 
can with any probability be traced to Simon himselt 
He was but the remote parent of a numerous, wide- 
spread, and inventive line of successors.'' 



° AtxordiDg to the PhiJ<i?opbtimeiia, 
Simon of Getiim in Samaria called 
himself a god, in imitatioa nf acertaiD 
Apaethus, vho in Lib)rn tmin^il some 
parrotg to sajr "ApseOiiis ie a god," 
and Dim let them loose. Thejr Qeir 
nbrolkd, alt over Libya and as far aa 
Greece, He obtained divine worship. 
Bnt n cleveiGifck fauudont the trick, 
amghl some of the pairota, and taught 
iJiem to say, "Apsethua shot Ha up, 
and taught n« lo say, ' Apselhus is a 
aod.'" He let them flj to Libya. Upon 
wliiuh the Libyans faiimed Apsethua 
:ia an impostor. Tbia ii an eld story 
told of Hanno the Carthaghunn, .CUaii, 
Vnr. Hiet., li?. 30. Its introduclion, 
and the stress laid upon it by Hippo- 
lytUE, do not give a very high notion 
tither of the lenrning or the fairness 



what is really ci 



if Heresies." Bui 
US and Taluable in 
HtalioDS from the 
kwAfarit fLtydXTt (the Great Ajv- 
nouncement, the Scriptures, it may be 
called, of the SinKmiau sect). Of the 
uislence of this book there c^ be no 
doubt. That it was written by the 
Simon Usgus of the Actit, it were 
litter absurdity to suppose. It may 
have been (he work of Dositheus or 
Menander, or of both of them, the 

monianimi. Tet there can be no doubt 
that it was accepted by Hippolytna as 
the autheutic woik of Simon. The 
chaos of opinions which it discloses 
is almost inconcsiTable. Simon must 
haie been well read in Plalo i 
Aristotle, if not in Pythagoras (Hip- 



gbap. y. 



SIMONIANISM. 



ol 



B'lt Simon, himself, was at no time a Christian; 
neither was the heir and successor of his doctrines, Me- 



poljtus everywhere discerns the in- 
fluence, ahoQost the exclusive ln£uence, 
of Greek philosophy). He quotes the 
poet fknpedocles. His Helena (he 
also allegorised the wooden horse) is 
derived from Homer and Stesichorus. 
He is equally familiar with the Old 
Testament (among other points he 
holds Fire to be the Primal Godhead ; 
this he borrowed, according to Hippo- 
lytus, from the saying of Moses, ** Our 
God Is a consuming fire **) and with 
the New; his Helena is the *'lost 
sheep " of the Gospels. And we read 
the following sti^ange parody, to our 
eai-s profane, on the great truths of 
Christianity: "As he had redeemed 
his Helena, so by his own wisdom 
{iirtyyt&ffews, his Gnosis), he had 
brought salvation to the world. For 
the angels, through their ambition, 
having administered the world badly. 
He had come for the restoration of all 
things, metamorphosed and made equal 
to the Principalities and Powers, and 
to the Angels, so as to appear as a 
man, not being man, and to suffer 
seemingly in Jndsea, though he did 
not suffer [with Bunsen, I erase the 
«a2], and appeared to the Jews as 
the Son, in Samaria as the Father, 
among the Gentilee as the Holy Ghost. 
But he permitted himself to be called 
by any name by which men chose to call 
him. The Prophets, he avers, altered 
their prophecies inspired by the angels 
who created the world [the evil Demi- 
urge], whom therefore the believers 
in Simon and Helena do not regard, 
but assert their own perfect freedom. 
For they say that they are saved by his 
jTBO} [the grace of Simon].*' (Bunsen, 



by one of his arbitrary decisions, to 
my judgement in contradiction to the 
whole text, supposes all this to be the 
Simonian description of our Saviour, 
Jesus, not that of Simon.) 

Indeed, the most remarkable part of 
this doctrine is its strong opposition 
to that of the Clementine Homilies. 
Here throughout Simon is the Saviour ; 
he is the Christ, he that hath stood, 
that stands, that will stand (Hippo- 
lytus would show that he is not the 
Saviour) t>ri xf>i<rrbs oIk ^y ^ifiaVf 6 
iffrits, (rrast (rrria'6iA€vos, p. 162. 

In the Acts we read that Simon'*s 
followers said " this man is the great 
Power of God " (pvydfiis rod Beov ri 
fi€yd\ri)y and according to all this 
system the great Power was the efSux 
of the Ineffable, Unapproachable, Un- 
known Godhead, the Redeemer of the 
materialised souls of men. In the 
Clementines he is the Antagonist of 
St. Peter, Even in his end there is 
a singular peculiarity in the fable. 
Here, too, in Home he is opposed to 
St. Peter. But instead of attempting 
to £y, as in Jhe vulgar tradition 
(Apost. Const, vi. 9), and falling and 
breaking his neck, Simon offered to 
be buried alive, and declared that he 
would rise again on the third day. 
His disciples buried him in a deep 
trench, " but.to this day,** says Hippo- 
l3rtus, ** they await his resurrection,*' 

Neander dismiss^ Simon and the 
Simonians almost with contempt. The 
Philosophumena, I think, show that I 
am right in attaching more importance 
to these doctrines, as an eai'ly sourci 
and manifestation of Gnostic opiiuons. 

e2 



52 



GNOSTICISM AND CHBISTIANITY. 



Book II 



nander ;^ and it was not till it had made some progress 
in the Syrian and Asiatic cities, that Christianity came 
into closer contact ^vith those Gnostic, or pre-Gnostic, 
systems, which, instead of opposing it with direct hosti- 
lity, received it with more insidious veneration, and 
warped it into an unnatural accordance with their own 
principles. As the Jew watched the appearance of 
Jesus, and listened to his announcement as the Messiah, 
in anxious suspense, expecting that even yet He would 
assume those attributes of temporal grandeur and 
visible majesty which, according to his conceptions, 
were inseparable from the true Messiah ; as, even after 
the death of Jesus, the Jewish Christians still eagerly 
anticipated his immediate return to Judgement, his mil- 
lennial reign, and his universal dominion : so many of 
GnostidBm ^^^^ Oriental speculatists, as soon as Chris- 
iSJ?f wtth tianity began to be developed, hailed it as the 
Christianity, completion of their own wild theories, and 
forced it into accordance with their universal tenet of 
distinct intelligences emanating from the primal Being. 
Thus Christ, who to the vulgar Jew was to be a tem- 
poral king, to the Cabalist or the Chaldean, or to 
men of kindred opinions, became a Sephiroth, an 
JEon, an emanation from the One Supreme. While 
the author of the religion remained on earth, and while 
the religion itself was still in its infancy, Jesus was in 
danger of being degraded into a King of the Jews, his 
Gospel of becoming the code of a new religious re- 
public.® Directly it got beyond the borders of Pales- 



' Menander baptized in his ovvn 
name, being sent by the Supreme 
Poicer of God, His baptbm conferred 
a i*esun«jCtiou not only to eternal life, 
but to eternal yoath. An opinion, as 



M. Matter jostly observ s, not easily 
i^econcileable to those who considered 
the body the unworthy prison of the 
soul. Irenaeus, i. 21. Matter, i. 219. 
• The Ebionites of Neander. Neai» 



CJtaAP. V. 



EPHESUS — ST. JOHN. 



53 



£phesiu. 



tme, and the name of Christ had acquired sanctity and 
veneration in the Eastern cities, he became a kind of 
metaphysical impersonation, while the religion lost its 
purely moral cast^ and assumed the character of a specu- 
lative theogony. 

Ephesus is the scene of the first collision between 
Christianity and Orientalism of which we can 
trace any authentic record. Ephesus, I have 
before described as the. great emporium of magic arts, 
and the place where the unwieldy allegory of the East 
lingered in the bosom of the more elegant Grecian 
Humanism.' Here the Greek, the Oriental, the Jew, 
the philosopher, the magician, the follower of John the 
Baptist, the teacher of Christianity, were no doubt 
encouraged to settle by the peaceful opulence of the 
inhabitants, and the constant influx of strangers, under 
the proudly indifierent protection of the municipal autho- 
rities and of the Boman Government. In Ephesus, ac- 
cording to universal tradition, survived the last of the 
Apostles ; and here the last of the Gospels — 
some have supposed, I think rightly, the latest 
of the writings of the New Testament — appeared in the 
midst of this struggle with the foreign elements of con- 



der's chapter on the Ebionites and Na- 
zarenes is excellent. I acquiesce in his 
ezplanatisn of £bion (from the Hebrew 
word jV3&5» *^® poor); but instead 
u£ taking the woi-d, as Origen did, in 
his allegoric vein, as a contemptuous 
appellation from their poverty of doo* 
trine, 1 would suppose that these re- 
fugees, who fled during the war of 
Titus and the war of Hadrian, and 
•tole back to Jerusalem, were poor as 
•ompared with tha Gentile Christians, 



! and the earlier Christians of Palestine 
addressed by St. James in his Epistle. 
" Go to now, ye rich men." 

f The Temple of Diana was the 
triumph of pare Grecian ai'chitecture : 
but her statue was not that of the 
divine Huntress like that twin sister 
of the Belvidere Apollo in the gallery 
at Paris; she was the Diana multi- 
mamma, the emblematic impei-sona* 
tion of AU-prodactive, All-nutritiTi 
Nato.i. 



54 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. Book U 

flicting systems. This Gospel was written, I conceive, 
not aficainst any peculiar sect or individual, but 
to arrest the spirit of Orientalism, which was 
working into the essence of Christianity, destroying its 
beautiful simplicity, and threatening altogether to 
change both its design and its effects upon mankind. 
In some points, it necessarily spoke the language, which 
was common alike, though not precisely with the same 
meaning, to the Platonism of the West and the Theo- 
gonism of the East. But how different and peculiar its 
sense! It kept the moral and religious, it not alto- 
gether distinct from the physical notions, yet clearly 
and invariably predominant. While it appropriated 
the well-known and almost universal term, the Logos, 
or Word of God, to the divine author of Christianity,^ 
and even adopted some of the imagery from the hypo- 
thesis of conflicting light and darkness ; yet it altogether 
rejected all the wild cosmogonical speculations on the 
formation of the world ; it was silent on that elementary 
distinction of the Eastern creed, the separation of matter 
from the ethereal mind. The union of the soul with the 
Deity, though in the writings of John it takes some- 
thing of a mystic tone, is not the Pantheistic absorption 
into the parent Deity ; it is an union by the aspiration 
of the pious heart, the conjunction by pure and holy 
love with the Deity, who, to the ecstatic moral affection 
of the adorer, is himself pm'e love. It insists not on 
abstraction from matter, but from sin, from hatred, 
from all fierce and corrupting passions ; its new life is 
active as well as meditative ; a social principle, which 
incorporates together all pure and holy men, and con- 
joins them with their federal head, Christ, the image 

' Compare Bnrton (Bampton Lectures), who fully admits this. 



CHAP.y. 



NIGOLAITANS — CERINTHUS, 



55 



Nicolaltans. 



and representative of the God of Love ; it is no prin- 
ciple of isolation in solitary and rapturous meditation ; 
it is a moral, not an imaginative purity. 

Among the opponents to the holy and sublime Chris- 
tianity of St. John, during his residence at Ephesus, the 
names of the Nicolaitans and of Cerinthus 
alone have survived.*^ Of the tenets of the 
former, and the author of the doctrine, nothing precise 
is known ; but the indignant language with which they 
are alluded to in the Sacred Writings implies that they 
were not merely hostile to the abstract doctrines, but 
also to the moral effects of the Gospel. Nor does 
it appear quite clear that the Nicolaitans were a distinct 
and organised sect. 

Cerinthus was the first of whose tenets we have any 
distinct statement, who, admitting the truth of 
Christianity, attempted to incorporate with it 
foreign and Oriental tenets.* Cerinthus was of Jewish 
descent, and educated in the Judaeo-Platonic school of 
Alexandria.^ His system was a singular and, appa- 



^ General tradition derived the Ni- 
oolutans from Nicolas, one of the 
seven deacons. Acts vi. 5. Eusebius 
(£ocl. Hist. 1. iii. c. 29) relates a story 
that Nicolas, accused of being jealous 
of his beautiful wife, offered her in 
matrimony to whoever chose to take 
her. His followers, on this example, 
founded the tenet of promiscuous con- 
cubinage. Wetstein, with whom Mi- 
diaelis and Bosenmiiller are inclined 
to agree, supposed that Nicolas was a 
tianslation of the Hebrew word Bi- 
\eam, both rignifying, in their re- 
spective languages, the subduer or the 
destroyer of the people. Michaelis, 



Eichhom, and Storr, suppose, there- 
fore, that it was the name rather of a 
sect than an individual, and the same 
with those mentioned in 2 Pet. ii. 1 0, 
13, 18; iii. 3; Jud. 8, 16. See Ro- 
senmiiller on Rev. ii. 6. The Philoso- 
phumena takes the popular view of the 
Nicolaitans from Nicolas the deacon ; 
it is precisely the same view and in 
the same words with Irenseus. 

* See Mo8heim,De Rebus ante CM., 
p. 199. Matter, i. 221. 

k Theodoret, ii. c. 3. This is ex- 
pressed by the Philosophumena, It con- 
firms also Neander*s ingenious comiexioa 
of the tenets with those of Phiio. 



r 



SYSTEM OF CERINTHU8. 



rently, incongruous fusion of Jewish, CIuTBtian, and 

Oriental notions. He did not, like Simon or Menander, 
invest liimself in a sacred and mysterious character, 
though he pretended to angelic revelations." Like all 
the Orientala, hia imagination was hannted with the 
notion of the malignity of matter ; and his object seems 
to have been to keep both the primal Being and the 
Christ uninfected with its contagion. The Creator of 
the material world, therefore, was a secondary being — 
an angel or angels ; as Ceriuthus seems to have adhered 
to the Jewish, and did not adopt the Oriental language." 
But his national and hereditary reverence for the Law 
withheld him from that bold and hostile step which was 
taken by most of the other Gnostic sects, to wliich, no 
doubt, the general animosity to the Jews in Syria and 
Egypt concurred — the identification of tlie God of the 
Jewish covenant with the inferior and malignant author 
of the material creation. He retained, according to one 
account, his reverence for the rites, the ceremonies, the 
Law, and the Prophets," of Judaism, to which he was 
probably reconciled by the allegoric interpretations of 
Philo. The Christ, in his theory, was of a higher order 
than those secondary and subordinate beings who had 
presided over the older world. But, with the jealousy 
of all the Gnostic sects, lest the pure Emanation from 
the Father should be unnecessarily contaminated by too 
intimate a conjunction with a material and mortal form, 
B relieved him irom the degradation of a human birth. 



} 




THE LATER GNOSTICS. 67 

Iby supposing that the Christ above descended on the 

[ man JesuB at his baptism ; and from the ignominy of a 

I mortal death, by making him reascend before that 

I crisis, having aecomphshed hia misaiou of making 

I known "the Unknown Father," the pure and primaJ 

I.Being, of whom the worshippers of the Creator of the 

h material universe, and of the Jehovah of the Jews, were 

r alike ignorant. But the most inconsequential part of 

the doctrine of Cerinthus was his retention of the Jewish 

doctrine of the millennium. It must, indeed, have been 

jiurified fi-om some of its grosser and more sensual 

for the Christos, the immaterial Emanation 

from the Father, was to preside during its Jong period of 

I harmony and peace.'' 

The later Gnostics were bolder but more consistent 
I innovators on the simple scheme of Chris- lbu, 
I tiauity. It was not till the second century """"* 
f that the combination of Orientalism with Christianity 
was matured uito the more perfect Gnosticism. This 
was, perhaps, at its height from about the year 120 to 
140. In all the great cities of the East, ia which 
Christianity had established its most flourishing com- 
munities, sprang up this rival, which aspired to a still 
higher degree of knowledge than was revealed in the 
G^pel, and boasted that it soared almost as much above 
the vulgar Christianity as above the vulgar Paganism. 
Antioch, where the first church of the Christians had 
been opened, beheld the followers of Satuminus with- 
drawing, in a proud assurance of tlieir superiority, from 
the common brotherhood of beUevers, and insulating 



' CerinthuswMOtmilicredhjrsoDM I to eonWn hia grosMr dcntrlne of It* 
wrly writert the Mithor of the Apo- milkunial reign of Christ. Uionjbiiu 
ealfpM, beouise tl»t work appcarfd | apod Eiueb. iii. 282 ; vii. 25, 



58 GS0STICI8M — THE PLEBOMA. Book It 

themselves as the gifted posseasore of still higher spf- 
ritual secrets. Edessa, whose king very early Christian 
fable had exalted into a personal correspondent viih 
the Saviour, rang with the mystic hymns of Barde- 
sanes ; to the countless religious and philosophical 
factions of Alexandria were added those of Basilides 
and Valentinus; until a still more unscrupulous and 
ardent enthusiast, Marcion of Pontus, threw aside in 
disdain the whole existing religion of the Gospel, re- 
modelled the sacred books, and established himself aa 
tiie genuine hierophant of the real Christian mya^ 
teries. 

Gnosticism, though very different from Christianity, 
ThsprUBAi was of a sublime and imposing character as 
(inusiktm. an imaginative creed, and not more unreason- 
able than the other attempts of human reason to solve 
the ioesplicable Becret, the origin of evU. Thowgh 
variously modified, the systems of the different teachera 
were- essentially the same. The primal Deity remained 
aloof in his unapproachable majesty; the Unspeakable, 
the Ineffable, the Nameless, the Self-e.xisting.^ The 
Pleroma, the fulness of the Godhead, expanded 
itself in still outspreading circles, and ap- 
proached, till it comprehended, the universe. From 
the Pleroma emanated all spiritual being, and to the 
Pleroma all such being was to return and mingle again 
in indissoluble unity. By their entanglement in malign 
and hostile matter — the source of moral aa well aa phy- 
sical evil — all outwardly existing beings had degenerated 



I 



1 The aiiUior 



the ApostoliL 


Ccn- 


Dot 


/p. -roB 


Xp,o- 


IS the fi.»t pri 


apk 




mi. !ji/i 


„P7i^ 


heresiB, rhw 


^k. 


a^» 


TOY, law 




V, «1 f.* 






Lib. n 


O.10. 






Chap. V. MALIGNITY OF MATTER. 59 

ttom their high origin ; their redemption from this 
foreign bondage, their restoration to purity and peace 
in the bosom of Divinity, the universal harmony of all 
immaterial existence, thus resolved again into the Ple- 
roma, was the merciful design of the ^on The .Eon 
Christ, who had for this purpose invaded and ^^*^^ 
subdued the foreign and hostile provinces of the pro- 
siding Energy, or Deity, of matter. 

In all the Oriental sects this primary principle, the 
malignity of matter, haunted the imagination ; Malignity of 
and to this principle every tenet must be ac- °^*'^''* 
commodated. The sublimest doctrines of the Old Tes- 
tament — the creative omnipotence, the sovereignty, the 
providence of God, as well as the grosser and anthropo- 
morphic images, in which the acts and passions, and 
even the form of man, are assigned to the Deity — fell 
under the same remorseless proscription. It was pollu- 
tion, it was degradation to the pure and elementary 
spirit, to mingle with, to approximate, to exercise even 
the remotest influence over, the material world. The 
creation of the visible universe was made over, according 
to all, to a secondary, with most, to a hostile Demiurge. 
The hereditary reverence which had modified the opinions 
of Cerinthus, with regard to the Jehovah of his fathers, 
had no hold on the Syrian and Egyptian speculatists. 
They fearlessly pursued their system to its consequences, 
and the whole of the Old Testament was abandoned io 
the inspiration of an inferior and evil daemon ; the Jews 
were left in exclusive possession of their national Deity, 
whom the Gnostic Christians disdained to ac- K^ection of 
knowledge as bearing any resemblance to the tament 
abstract, remote, and impassive Spirit. To them, the 
mission of Christ revealed a Deity altogether unknown 
in the dark ages of a world which was the creation and 



50 EEJECTION OF THE SCEIPTCEES. 

the domain of an inferior being. They would not, like 
the philosophising Jews, take refuge in allegory to 
explain tbo too material images of the works of the 
Deity in the act of creation, and his subsequent rest ; 
the intercourse with man in the garden of Eden ; the 
trees of knowledge and of life ; the Serpent, and the 
Fall. They rejected the whole as altogether extraneous 
to ChrlBtianity, belonging to another world, with which 
the God revealed by Christ had no concern or relation. 
If they condescended to discuss the later Jewish history, 
it was merely to confirm their preconceived notions. 
The apparent investiture of the Jefiovah with the state 
and attributes of a temporal sovereign, the imperfection 
of the Law, the barbarity of the people, the bloody wars 
in which they were engaged ; in short, whatever in 
Judaism was irreconcileable with a purely intellectual 
and morally perfect Byatem, argued ita origin from an 
imperfect and secondary author. 

But some tenets of primitive Christianity came no less 
odome into direct collision with the leading principles 
Sew. of Orientalism. The human nature of Jesua 

was too deeply impressed upon all the Gospel history, 
and perplexed the whole school, as well the precursors 
of GnoHticism as the more perfect Gnostics. Hia birth 
and death bore equal evidence to the unspi ritualised 
materialism of his mortal body. The Gnostics seized 
with avidity the distinction between the divine and 
human nature ; but the Christ, the JEon, which ema- 
nated from the pure and primal Deity, as yet unknown 
in the world of the inferior creator, must be relieved as 
far as possible from the degrading and contaminating 
association with the mortal Jesus. The simpler hypo- 
thesis of the union of the two natures, miugled too 
closely, according to tlieir views, the ill-assorted com- . 



1 



Chap. V. TENETS OF GNOSTICISM. 61 

panioDS. The human birth of Jesus, though guarded 
by the virginity of his mother, was still offensive to 
their subtler and more fastidious purity. The Christ, 
therefore, the Emanation from the Pleroma, descended 
upon the man Jesus at his baptism. The death of Jesus 
was a still more serious cause of embarrassment. They 
seem never to have entertained the notion of an ex- 
piatory sacrifice; and the connexion of the ethereal 
mind with the pains and sufferings of a carnal body, was 
altogether repulsive to their strongest prejudices. Before 
the death, therefore, of Jesus, the Christ had broken off 
his temporary association with the perishable body of 
Jesus, and surrendered it to the impotent resentment 
of Pilate and of the Jews ; or, according to the theory of 
the Docetse, adopted by almost all the Gnostic sects, the 
whole union with the material human form was an 
illusion upon the senses of men ; it was but an apparent 
human being, an impassive phantom, which seemed to 
undergo all the insults and the agony of the cross. 

Such were the general tenets of the Gnostic sects, 
emanating from one simple principle. But the details 
of their cosmogony, their philosophy, and their religion, 
were infinitely modified by local circumstances, by the 
more or less fanciful genius of their founders, and by the 
stronger infusion of the different elements of Flatonism, 
Gabalism, or that which, in its stricter sense, may be 
called Orientalism. The number of circles, or emana- 
tions, or procreations, which intervened between the 
spiritual and the material world; the nature and the 
rank of the Creator of that material world ; his more or 
less close identification with the Jehovah of Judaism ; 
the degree of malignity which they attributed to the 
latter ; the office and the nature of the Christos, — these 



62 



8ATUENINUS. 



Bo(«IL 



Satumlnns. 



were open points, npon which they admitted, or, at least, 
assumed, the utmost latitude. 

The earliest of the more distinguished Gnostics is 
Satuminus, who is represented as a pupil of 
Menander, the successor of Simon Magus/ 
But this Samaritan sect was always in direct hostility 
with Christianity, while Satuminus departed less from 
the Christian system than most of the wilder and more 
imaginative teachers of GnosticisuL The strength of 
the Christian party in Antioch may in some degree 
have overawed and restrained the aberrations of his 
fancy. Satuminus did not altogether exclude the primal 
spiritual Being from all concern or interest in the mate- 
rial world. For the Creator of the visible universe, he 
assumed the seven great angels (which the later Jews 
had probably borrowed, though with different powers, 
from the seven Amschaspands of Zoroastrianism) or 
rather the Chief of these seven, who was the God of the 
Jews. Neither were these angels essentially evil, nor 
was the domain on which they exercised their creative 
power altogether surrendered to the malignity of matter ; 
it was a kind of debateable ground between the powers 
of evil and of good. The historian of Gnosticism has 
remarked the singular beauty of the fiction regarding 
the creation of man. " The angels tried their utmost 
efforts to form man ; but there arose under their creative 
influence only * a worm creeping upon the eardi.' Grod, 
condescending to interpose, sent down his Spirit, which 
breathed into the reptile the living soul of man." It is 



' On Satarninus, see Irenseus, i. 22 ; 
Easeb. iv. 7; £p:plian. Haer. 23; 
rheodoret, Har. Fab. lib. iii. ; Ter- 
luilian, De Animft^ 23; De Prscscrip. 



cont. H»r. c. 46. Of the modeiiis, 
Mosheim, p. 336 ; Matter, i. 276. He 
lived under Hadrian. 



Chap. V. 



DOCTRINE OF SATURNINUS. 



63 



not quite easy to connect with this view of the origin 
of man the tenets of Satuminns, that human kind 
was divided into two distinct races, the good an^. the 
bad. Whether the latter became so from receiving a 
feebler and less influential portion of the divine Spirit, 
or whether they were a subsequent creation of Satan, 
who assumes the station of the Ahriman of the Persian 
system, does not clearly appear." But the descent of 
Christ was to separate finally these two conflicting races. 
He was to rescue the good from the predominant power 
of the wicked ; to destroy the kingdom of the spirits of 
evil, who, emanating in countless numbers from Satan 
their chief, waged a fatal war against the good ; and to 
elevate them far above the power of the chief of the 
angels, the God of the Jews, for whose imperfect laws 
were to be substituted the purifying principles of Asce- 
ticism, by which the children of light were reunited to 
the source and origin of light. The Christ himself was 
the Supreme Power of God, immaterial, incorporeal, 
formless, but assuming the semblance of man ; and his 
followers were, as far as possible, to detach themselves 
from their corporeal bondage, and assimilate themselves 
to his spiritual being. Marriage was the invention of 
Satan and his evil spirits, or at best, of the great Angel, 
the God of the Jews, in order to continue the impure 
generation. The elect were to abstain from propagating 
a race of darkness and imperfection. Whether Satumi- 
nus, with the Essenes, maintained this total abstinence 
as the especial privilege of the higher class of his fol- 
lowers, and permitted to the less perfect the continuation 



* The latter opinion is that of 
Mosheim. M. Matter, on the contrary, 
eays, — " Satan n'a pas poortant cr^ 
ecB homines, 11 les a troav^ tout faits. 



il s'en est empar^ ; c'est lit sa sph^ 
d'activit^et la limite de sa pnissance." 
t. i. p. 285. 



64 



ALEXASDRIA— BA3ILIDKS. 



of their kind, or whether he abaadoned altogether this 
perilous and degrading office to the wifked, liis system 
appears incomplete, as it seenas to yield up as desperate 
the greater part of the human race ; to perpetuate the 
dominion of evil ; and to want the general and final 
abBorption of all existence into the purity and happiness 
ot the primal Being. 

Alexandria, the centre, as it were, of the speculative 

and intellectual activity of the Koman world, 

to which ancient Egypt, Asia, Palestine, and 

Greece, furnished the mingled population of her streets, 

and the conflicting opinionfl of her schools, gave birth 

to the two succeeding and most widely disseminated 

sects of Gnosticism, those of Basilides and Valentinus. 

Basilides was a Syrian by birtb, and by some is sup- 

posed to have been a scholar of Menander, at 

the same time with Satuminus. He claimed, 

however, Glaucias, a disciple of St. Peter, as his original 

teacher; and his doctrines assumed the boastful title of 

the Secret Traditions of the great Apostle.' He also had 

some ancient prophecies, those of Cham and Barkaph," 

peculiar to his sect. According to another authority, 

he was a Persian ; but thia may have originated from 

the Zoroastrian cast of his primary tenets." From the 

Zendavesta, Basilides drew the eternal hostility of mind 

and matter, of light and darkness ; but the Zoroastrian 

doctrine seema to have accommodated itself to the 



• AiMorfii^to thePhiloiophoineiM, 
th« BaBJtidiana proftsaed tn deriTt thar 
doctrine fram the Apoetle MatthiHs. 

■ Irenaus diflers, in his view of the 
Builidion theo^;, from the remaios of 
" " ' n hooks appalled to by 
Clement of AlciandriH, Strom, vl. 



I 




Chap. V. THE ^ONS OF GNOSTICISM. 65 

kindred systems of Egypt. In fact, the Gnosticism of 
Basilides appears to have been a fusion of the ancient 
sacerdotal religion of Egypt with the angelic and daemo- 
niac theory of Zoroaster J Basilides did not, it seems, 
maintain his one abstract unapproachable Deity far 
above the rest of the universe, but connected him, by a 
long and insensible gradation of intellectual develop- 
ments or manifestations, with the visible and material 
world. From the Father proceeded seven beings, who 
together lyith him made up an ogdoad ; constituted the 
first scale of intellectual beings, and inhabited the highest 
heaven, the purest intellectual sphere. According to 
their names — ^Mind, Reason, Intelligence (^povrjai^), 
Wisdom, Power, Justice, and Peace — they are merely, 
in our language, the attributes of the Deity, impersonated 
in this system. 

The number of these primary ^Eons is the same as 
the Persian system of the Deity and the seven Am- 
schaspands, and the Sephiroth of the Cabala, and, pro- 



^ The Philosophumena entera at &yy€\oSi ov Oths, ov8i 8Xwj ri rStv 
some length into the doctrines of Ba- I 6pofia(6fifvay ^ 8i* aicrO^crcws Xa/i- 
silides, and has, seemingly, many cita* { popofityav ff voiyrSiv vparyfuirtovt 



lions from his writings. Hippolytus, 
as is his wont, traces the origin of 
them to the Greek philosopher. Ac- 
cording to the Philosophumena, the 
primal Deity was so absolutely se- 
cluded from all beings as himself to 



oXA* oi^TO) \€irrofi«poT6pciS irdvrcov 
airX&s if^piyeypafjiixivwVf oIk &u 
0ths 

otroi Si OVK oi'Ta) 



cease to be a being. Basilides went ; hirpoaipiroos, iiiraBwt, iLPnriOvfiiircas 

on in his negation till he denied the i ie6<rfioy ^9cXi7<rc 7roii,ircu (p. 58, iu 

existence of God. It is a strange '[ Bunsen*s Analecti). The first seems 

oassage, which Bunsen seems to me I to have been a purely intellectual or 

.0 have eluded : 'Eirel oif^^y ^v, ohx ' metaphysical evolution. But this 

5Xi7, OVK ohaia, obK hvolffiov, ohx , ^»°g» o*" °® Being, contained within 

rtirXoOy, ol ffMfrov, oh vorirhy, '■ itself the seed of the whole uniTerse. 

OVK kvaiffBitroyt oi/K &u$p<oir9Sf oifK the Cosmos. 

VOL. II. 3' 



66 



THE MYSTICAL ABRAXAS. 



Book II. 



bably, as far as that abstruse subject is known, of the 
ancient Egyptian theology.* 

The seven primary effluxes of the Deity went on 
producing and multiplying, each forming its own realm 
or sphere, till they reached the number of 365.** The 
total number formed the mystical Abraxas,^ the legend 



• See Matter, vol, ii. p. 5-37. 

^ It is difficult to suppose that this 
number, either as originally borrowed 
from the Egyptian theology, or as 
invented by Basilides, had not some 
astronomical reference. All this, ob- 
serves Bunsen, is merely the mytho- 
logical form of psychologic speculation, 
based upon the simple words of the 
Prologue and coupled with the imagi- 
nary astronomy of the ancient world. 
Bunsen goes on to describe exceedingly 
well the next process according to the 
Philosophumena : " It is stated in our 
extracts that the words, ' Let there be 
light,' produced the genn or seed of 
the world, which, adds Basilides, is 
the light that came into the world 
^John i.). The beauty of Divine good- 
ness attracts the element of life in 
matter ; this Divine element Basilides 
calls the Sonship. There are three 
classes of Sonship. The most refined 
element flies by its own nature up to 
the Ineffable Father ; the second Son- 
ship uses the Holy Spirit as a wing, 
but rises by its assistance to the pa- 
ternal glory, from whence the Holy 
Spirit, being repulsed by the Ine£fable 
(and attracted by matter), sinks into an 
intermediate state below the Ineffable 
(purely intellectual), but still above this 
earth (the mere psychical or animal). 
The essence of the life of this earth 
is ooncentrated in the Demiurgos, or 
Spirit of the material world, whoso 



Son (conscious realization?) is much 
more elevated than himself. This 
material world in its brute resistance, 
in its blind hostility to the Divine 
formative and limiting power, is the 
evil principle." Christianity and Man- 
kind, vol. i. p. 18. In the original 
of which this is the summary, there 
is much grace and fancy of imageiy ; 
but how far are we from the simplicity 
of the Gospel, even from that part of 
St. John which borders most closely 
on the mystic ? 

* Irenseus, i. 23. See in M. Matter, 
ii. 49, 54, the countless interpretations 
of this mysterious woitl. We might 
add others to those collected by his 
industry. M. Matter adopts, though 
with some doubt, the opinion of M 
Bellerman and M. Munter. ** Le pre- 
mier de ces ^crivains expiique le mot 
d' Abraxas par le kopte, qui est in- 
contestablement h. Tandenne langue 
d'Egypte ce que la grec moderne est 
au langage de Tancienne Grcfce. La 
syllable sadsch, que les Grecs ont dd 
conveilir en aa^, ou (ras, ou aaC 
n'ayant pu exprimer la demi^re lettre 
de cette syllable, que par les lettres 
X, 2, ou Z, signifierait parole, et 
abrak beniy saint, adorable, en sorte 
que le mot d'Abraxas tout entie.* 
offrirait le sena de parole sacrie, M. 
Munter ne s'^loigne de cette interpr^ 
tation, que pour les syllables abrak 
qu'il prend pour le mot kopte * berra. 



Mil 



Chap. V. THE BASILIDIAN SYSTEM. 67 

which is found on so many of the ancient gems, the 
greater part of which are of Gnostic origin ; though, as 
much of this theory was from the doctrines of ancient 
Egypt, not only the mode of expressing their tenets by 
symbolic inscriptions, but even the inscription itself, may 
be originally Egyptian.^ The lowest of these worlds 
bordered on the realm of matter. On this confine the 
first confusion and invasion of the hostile elements took 
place. At length the chief Angel of this sphere, on the 
verge of intellectual being, was seized with a desire of 
reducing the confused mass to order. With his assistant 
angels, he became the Creator. Though the form was 
of a higher origin, it was according to the idea of 
Wisdom, who, with the Deity, was part of the first 
and highest ogdoad. Basilides professed the most 
profound reverence for Divine Providence; and in 
Alexandria, the God of the Jews, softened ofi", as it 
were, and harmonised to the philosophic sentiment by 
the school of Philo, was looked upon in a less hostile 
light than by the Syrian and Asiatic school. The East 
lent its system of guardian angels, and the assistant 
angels of the Demiurge were the spiritual rulers of the 
nations, while the Creator himself was that of the Jews. 
Man was formed of a triple nature: his (corporeal 
form of brute and malignant matter ; his animal soul, 
the Psychic principle, which he received from the 
Demiurge ; the higher and purer spirit, with which he 
was endowed from a loftier region. This pure and 
ethereal spirit was to be emancipated from its impure 



nowoeaUi ce qui donne k Tensemble lion of these Egyptian and Egypto 



le sens de parole nottoeau" Matter, 
ii. 40. 

^ See, in the supplement to M. 
Matter's work, a very carious collec- 



Gi'ecian medals ; tuid a worlc of Dr. 
Walsh on these coins. Compare, lilce- 
wise, Beiiyen's Lettres k M. Letronne, 
particularly p. 23. 

r2 



68 



VALENTISUB. 



le Eaet.^^ 
in ordeK^I 

adations ^M 
d to its -■ 



companionship ; and Egypt, or rather the whole Eae^i 
leot the doctrine of the tranamigration of souls, in ordeK' 
to carry this stranger upon earth through the gradations 
(if suecessive purificalion, till it was readmitted to its 
jiarent heaven. 

Basilidea, in the Christian doctrine which he inter- 
wove with this imaginative theory, followed the usual 
GntKtic course.' The Christ, the first ^on of the 
Deity, descended on the man Jesus at his baptism; 
l)ut, by a peculiar tenet of their o*vii, the Ba^ilidiang 
i-c'scued even the man Jesus from the degrading suffer- 
ings of the cross. Simon the Cyrenian was changed 
into the form of Jesus ; on him the enemies of the 
Crucified wasted their wrath, while Jesus stood aloof in 
the form of Simon, and mocked their impotent malice. 
Theirmoral perceptionemust have been singularly bhnded 
hv their passion for their favourite tenet, not to discern 
Iiow much they lowered their Saviour by making him 
thus render up an innocent victimaa his own substitute. 

Valentinus appears to have been considered the most 
formidable and dangerous of this school of 
Gnostics.' He was twice excommunicated, 
and twice received again into the bosom of the Church. 
He did not confine his dangerous opinions to the school 
of Alexandria ; he introduced the wild Oriental specu- 
lations into the more peaceful West; taught at Rome; 
and, a third time being expelled from the Christian 
society, retired to Cyprus, an island where the Jews< 



' Ivensas, L 39, oompU'eil with 
tbe other aaliors cited above. 

'' liHUEUE, Hai'. V. Clemens. Met., 
Strom. Origen, De Princip. contra 
C"1aum. Tlis anthor of the Didaa- 
caha Oi-lentaJU, at the end of the 



»of Clementof Aleiandtk. tm- 
m adienn* TaJentin. Theo- 
, Fab. Hnr. i. 7. Epiphaoios, 
. 31. Philosophumena, p. 177 
Bmuen's Aiulecta, rol. 



1 



CHAP Ir. 



SYSTEM OF TALESTLNUS. 



69 



were formerly numerous till the fatal insurrection in 
the time of Hadrian ; and where probably the Oriental 
philosophy might not find an unwelcome reception, on 
the border, as it were, of Emx)pe and Asia."^ 

Yalentinns annihilated the complexity of pre-existiiijr 
heavens, which, perhaps, connected the system oi' 
Basilides with that of ancient Egjrpt, and did not 
interpose the same infinite number of gradations be- 
tween the primal Deity and the material world, lie 
descended much more rapidly into the sphere of 
Christian images and Christian language, or nither, ht^ 
carried up many of the Christian notions and terms, 
and enshrined them in the Pleroma, the region ot 
spiritual and inaccessible light. The fundamental 
tenet of Orientalism, the Incomprehensibility of the 
Great Supreme, was the essential principle of his 
system, and was represented in terms pregnant with 
mysterious sublimity. The first Father, the Monad, 
was called Bythos, the Abyss, the Depth, the Un- 
fathomable, who dwelt alone in inscrutable and ineffable 
height, with his own first Conception, his Ennoia, who 
bore the emphatic and awful name of Silence.^ I'lie 
first development took place after endless ages, in which 
the Unfathomable dwelt in his majestic solitude, but 
he found not delight in his solitude. Love was his 
motive. Love must have an object — something to love.* 



« Tertull. advers. Valentiii., c. 4. 
Epiphan. Massuet. (Diss, in Ircn. p. x. 
14) doubts this part of the history of 
Valentinus. 

*« According to Hippolytus (vi. 
29-30) the strict Valentinians did not 
allow that Sig^ was to be reckoned as 
Sizygos, but they maintained that 
Bythos alone produced the iEons ; and 



this appears to have been the doctrine 
of Valentinus. Rossel's Picture of the 
Valentinian System. Bunsen, i. 143. 
* ^i\4prifju>s ykp ohK ijv. 'Aydirri 
ykpi <^t}<rly, ^v %\os, ^ 9h iiydirri 
oitK %<my kydmi, ih,v yAi J rh kya* 
ir^fAtyov, Phiiosophumena, p. 184 
Hippolytos traces all Valentlnianism tc 
Pythagoras and the Tinueos of Plato. 



70 VALENTINIAHI8M. Book U 

This development or self- manifestation was Mind 
(fjous), whose appropriate consort was Aletheia or 
Truth. These formed the first great quaternion, the 
highest scale of being. From Mind and Truth pro- 
ceeded the Word and Life (Logos and Zoe) ; their 
raanifeetations were Man and the Church, Anthropos 
and Ecclesia, and so the first ogdoad was coraplete. 
From the Word and Life proceeded ten more Mona ; 
lint these seem, from their names, rather qualities of 
[he Supreme; at least the five masculine names, for the 
feminine appear to imply some departure from the 
pure elementary and unimpassioned nature of the 
primal Parent, The malea are — Biithios, profound, 
with his consort Mixis, conjunction; Ageratos, that 
grows not old, with Henosis or union ; Autophyes, self- 
siibsistent, wdth Hedone, pleasure ; Akinetos, motion- 
less, with Syncrasis, comraixture ; the Only Begotten 
and Blessedness. The offspring of Man and the Church 
were twelve, and in the females we seem to trace thp 
shadowy prototypes of the Christian graces: — the 
Paraclete and Faith ; the Paternal and Hope ; the 
Maternal and Charity; the Ever-intelligent and Pru- 
dence ; Ecclesiastic OS (a term apparently expressive of 
church union) and Eternal Happiness ; "Will and Wisdom 
(Theletos and Sophia). 

These thirty ^ons dwelt alone within the saered and 
inviolable circle of the Pleroma : they were all, in one 
sense, manifestations of the Deity, all purely intellec- 
tual, an universe apart But the peace of this meta- 
physical hierarchy wa? disturbed; and here we are 
presented with a noble allegory, which, as it were, 
brings these abstract conceptions within the reach of 
human sympathy. The last of the dodecarchy which 
sprang from Man and tlie Church was 



I 
I 

I 




Chap. V. 



VALENTINIANISM. 



71 



Wisdom. Without intercourse with her consort Will, 
Wisdom was seized with an irresistible passion for that 
knowledge and intimate union with the primal Father, 
the Unfathomable, which was the sole privilege of the 
first-bom. Mind. She would comprehend the Incom- 
prehensible: love was the pretext, but temerity the 
motive. Pressing onward under this strong impulse, 
she would have reached the remote sauctuary, and 
would finally have been absorbed into the primal 
Essence, had she not encountered Horus (the imper- 
sonated boundary between knowledge and the Deity). 
At the persuasion of this " limitary cherub " (to borrow 
Miltoi's words), she acknowledged the incomprehen- 
sibilitj of the Father, returned in humble acquiescence 
to her lowlier sphere, and allayed the passion begot of 
Wonder. But the harmony of the intellectual world 
was destroyed ; a redemption, a restoration, was neces- 
sary ; and (for now Valentinus must incorporate the 
Christan system into his own) from the first iEon, the 
divine Mind, proceeded Christ and the Holy Ghost. 
Christcommunicated to the listening Mons the mystery 
of the imperishable nature of the Father, and their 
own procession from him; the delighted ^ons com- 
menorated the restoration of the holy peace, by each 
consributing his most splendid gift to form Jesus, 
encrcled with his choir of angels.*^ 
'Valentinus did not descend immediately from his 



^ Each iEon took the best that he 
poflsosed, and with these they formed 
A hf>py image to the praise of the 
Heaenly Father, who is also called 
^viar (Soter), and Christos and Lo- 
flros^and the Whole, because he bears 
witin him the flower of everything; 
and they sarrounded him with roi* 



nistering angels to be his companions. 
Rossel in Bunsen, p. 149. According 
to Hippolytus (Bunsen adds in a note), 
this ideal Christ Jesus is also called 
Logos, but distinct from the Logos 
of the inmost Divine sphere, called the 
heavenly Logos. 



72 VALENTINIANISM. 

domain of metaphysical abstraction ; he interposed an 
intermediate sphere between that and the material 
world. The desire or passion of Sophia, impersonated, 
became an inferior Wisdom ; she was an outcast from 
the Pleroma, and lay floating in the dim and formless 
chaos without The Christos in mercy gave her form 
and substance ; she preserved, as it were, some fragrance 
of immortality. Her passion was still strong for higher 
tbtngH. tor the light which she could not appreliend ; 
and she incessantly attempted to enter the forbidden 
circle of the Pleroma, but was again arrested by Eonia, 
who uttered the mystic name of Jao. Sadly she re- 
turned to the floating elements of inferior being; she 
was surrendered to Passion, and with his assirtance 
produced the material world. The tears whidi she 
shed, at the thought of her outcast condition, brmed 
the humid element; her smiles, when she thought of 
the region of glory, the light; her fears and herstrrows, 
the grosser elements, Clirist descended no more to her 
assistance, but sent Jesus, the Paraclete, the Siviour, 
with his angels; and with his aid, all substnne yioa 
dirided into material, animal, and spiritual. The spiri- 
tual, however, altogether emanated from the liglit oi 
her divine assistant; the first formation of the aninal 
(the Psychic) was the Demiui^e, the Creator, the 
Saviour, the Father, the king of all that was conaib- 
stantial with himself, and finally, the material, of wKch 
lie was only the Demiurge or Creator. Thus lere 
formed the seven intermediate spheres, of which he 
Demiurge and his assistant angels (the seven agaij; of 
the Persian system), with herself, made up a secmd 
Ogdoad — the image and feeble reflection of the fomur; 
Wisdom representing the primal Parent ; the Demiuga 
the divine Mind, though he was ignorant of his motbr. 



} 



Chap. V. VALENTINIANI8M. 73 

more ignorant than Satan himself; the othei sidereal 
angels, the rest of the Mona. By the Demiurge the 
lower world was formed. 

Mankind consisted of three classes : the spiritual, who 
are enlightened with the divine ray from Jesus ; the 
animal or psychic, the offspring and kindred of the 
Demiurge; the material, the slaves and associates of 
Satan, the prince of the material world. They were 
represented, as it were, by Seth, Abel, and Cain. This 
organisation or distribution of mankind harmonised 
with tolerable facility with the Christian scheme. But 
by multiplying his spiritual beings, Valentinus em- 
barrassed himself in the work of redemption or restora- 
tion of this lower and still degenerating world. With 
him, it was the Christos, or rather a faint image and 
reflection (for all his intelligences multiplied them- 
selves by this reflection of their being), who passed 
through the material form of the Virgin, like water 
through a tube. It was Jesus who descended upon the 
Saviour at his baptism, in the shape of a dove; and 
Valentinus admitted the common fantastic theory with 
regard to the death of Jesus. At the final consumma- 
tion, the latent fire would burst out (here Valentinus 
admitted the theory common to Zoroastrianism and 
Christianity) and consume the very scoria of matter; 
the material men, with their prince, would utterly 
perish in the conflagration. Those of the animal, the 
Psychic, purified by the divine ray imparted by the 
Kedeemer, would, with their parent, the Demiurge, 
occupy the intermediate realm ; there were the just men 
made perfect ; while the great mother, Sophia, would at 
length be admitted into the Pleroma or intellectual 
jphere. 

Gnosticism was pure poetry, and Bardesanes was the 



74 



BABDESANES. 



BllOK II. 



poet of Gnosticism.™ For above two centuries, the hymns 
of this remarkable man, and those of his son 
Harmonins, enchanted the ears of the Syrian 
Christians, till they were expelled by the more orthodox 
raptures of Ephraem the Syrian. Among the most re- 
markable circumstances relating to Bardesanes, who lived 
at the court of Abgar, king of Edessa, was his inquiry 
into the doctrines of the ancient Gymnosophists of India, 
which thus connected, as it were, the remotest East with 
the great family of religious specidatists ; yet the theory 
of Bardesanes was more nearly allied to the Persian or 
the Chaldean ; and the language of his poetry was in 
that fervent and amatory strain which borrows the 
wannest metaphors of human passion to kindle the soul 
to divine love.° 

Bardesanes deserved the glory, though he did not 
suffer the pains, of martyrdom. Pressed by the philo- 
sopher ApoUonius, in the name of his master, the 
Emperor Verus, to deny Christianity, he replied, " I 
fear not death, which I shall not escape by yielding to 
the wishes of the Emperor." Bardesanes had opposed 
with vigorous hostility the system of Marcion;® he 
afterwards appears to have seceded, or, outwardly con- 
forming, to have aspired in private to become the head 



" Valentinus, according to Tertul- 
lian, wrote psalms (De Came Christi, 
c. 20) ; his disciple Marcos explained 
his system in verse, and introduced the 
Mons as speaking. Compare Hahn, 
p. 26. Bardesanes wrote 150 psalms, 
the number of those of David. 

The reader who is carious to follow 
out a more complete development of 
Valentinianism may well consult the 
diji«)uisition of Rof sel (a promising pupil 



of Neander, who died early) in Bunsen, 
i. p. 142. It is of course far mo)v 
full, perhaps occasionally fancifnlly 
full, than my outline, which, however, 
I think shows almost the essential 
perils of the doctrine. 

■ Theodoret, Haret Fab. 209. 

** According to Eusebius, E. H. v, 38, 
Bardesanes approached much nearer to 
orthodoxy, though he still '* bore somd 
tokens of the sable stream* " 



CHAp.y. 



HIS system:— ms poetbt. 



75 



of another Gnostic sect, which, in contradistinction to 
those of Satominus and Yalentinns, may be called the 
Mesopotamian or Babylonian. With him, the primal 
Deity dwelt alone with his consort^ his primary thought 
or conception. Their first offiprings, .ZElons, or Emana- 
tions, were Christ and the Holy Ghost, who, in his 
system, was feminine, and nearly allied to the Sophia, 
or Wisdom, of other theories ; the four elements, — ^the 
dry earth, and the water, the fire, and the air, — who 
make np the celestial Ogdoad. The Son and his 
partner, the Spirit or Wisdom, with the assistance of 
the elements, made the worlds, which they surrendered 
to the government of the seven planetary spirits and 
the sun and moon, the visible types of the primal union. 
Probably these, as in the other systems, made the 
second Ogdoad ; and these, with other astral influences, 
borrowed from the Tsabaism of the region, the twelve 
signs of the zodiac, and the thirty-six Decani, as he 
called the rulers of the 360 days, governed the world 
of man. And here Bardesanes became implicated with 
the eternal dispute about destiny and freewill, on which 
he wrote a separata treatise, and which entered into 
and coloured all his speculations.^ But the Wisdom 
which was the consort of the Son was of an inferior 
nature to that which dwelt with the Father. She was 
the Sophia Achamoth, and, faithless to her spiritual 
partner, she had taken delight in assisting the Demiurge 
in the creation of the visible world ; but in all her 
wanderings and estrangement, she felt a constant and 



P He seems to have had an esoteric 
and an exoteric ductrine. Hahn, p. 22, 
on the authority of St. Ephrem. Com- 
pare Hahn, Bardesanes Gnosticns Sj- 



rormn primus Hymnologus. MucK 
of this bears dose analogy to Valen* 
tinianism. 



76 MOTIVES OF THE THEOEISTS. 

impassioned desire for perfect reunion with her first 
consort. He assisted her in her course of purification 
revealed to her his more perfect light, on which she 
gazed with reanimating love ; and the second wedding 
of these long estranged powers, in the presence of the 
parent Deity, and all the .^lons and angels, formed the 
subject of one of his most ardent and rapturous hymns. 
With her, arose into the Pleroma those souls which 
partook of her celestial nature, and are rescued, by the 
descent of the Christ, according to the usual Gnostic the- 
ory, from their iTnprisonment in the world of matter. 

Yet all these theorists preserved some decent show 
of respect for the Christian faith, and aimed at an 
amicable reconciliation between their own wild theories 
and the simpler Gospel. It is not improbable that 
most of their leaders were actuated by the ambition of 
uniting the higher and more intellectual votariea of the 
older Paganism with the Christian community ; the one 
by an accommodation with the Egyptian, the others, 
with the S}Tifln or Chaldean, as, in later times, the 
Alexandrian school, with the Grecian or Platonic Pagan- 
bm ; and expected to conciliate all wlio would not 
scruple to engraft the few tenets of Christianity which 
they preserved inviolate upon their former belief. They 
aspired to retain all that was dazzling, vast, and ima- 
ginative in the cosmogonical systems of the East, aud 
rejected all that was humiliating or ofifensive to the 
common sentiment in Christianity. The Jewish cha- 
racter of the Messiah gave way to a purely immaterial 
notion of a celestial Redeemer ; the painful realities of 
his life and death were softened off into fantastic appear- 
ances ; they yet adopted as much of the Christian lan- 
guage as they could mould to their views, and even 
disguised or mitigated their contempt for, or animosity 



1 

I 

I 

I 



'JHAP. V. 



MARCION OF PONTUS. 



77 



to, Judaism. But Marcion of Pontus ^ disclaimed all these 
conciliatory and temporising measures, either Mardonof 
with Pagan, Jew, or evangelic Christian/ With ^*^°*°^ 
Marcion, all was hard, cold, implacable antagonism. 
At once a severe rationalist and a strong enthusiast, 
Marcion pressed the leading doctrine of the malignity 
of matter to its extreme speculative and practical 
consequences. His Creator, his providential Governor, 
the God of the Jews, — weak, imperfect, enthralled in 
matter, — was the opposite to the true God. The only 
virtue of men was the most rigid and painful absti- 
nence. Marcion's doctrine interdicted all animal food 
but fish; it surpassed the most austere of the other 
Christian communities in its proscription of the amuse- 
ments and pleasures of life ; it rejected marriage, from 
hostility to the Demiurge, whose kingdom it would not 
increase by peopling it with new beings enslaved to 
matter, to glut death with food." The fundamental 
principle of Marcion's doctrine was unfolded in his 
Antitheses, the Contrasts, in which he arrayed against 
each other the Supreme God and the Demiurge the 
God of the Jews, the Old and New Testament, the Law 
and the Gospel.* The one was perfect, pure, beneficent, 



4 Marcion was son of the Bishop of 
Sinope. 

' On Marcion, see chiefly the five 
books of TertuUian adv. Marcion ; the 
Historians of Heresies, Irenseus, i. 27 ; 
Epiphanius, 42 ; Theodoret, i. 24 ; Ori- 
gen contra Cels. ; Clem. Alex. iii. 425 ; 
St. Ephrem, Orat 14, p. 468. 

* q$ 8^ \oy^ ju^ $ov\6fAtvot rhy 
KOfffihy rhv (hrh rov Atifiioipyov 
yeyofieyhv trvfi.ie\it\fH)vv, kitix^^^^ 
ydfMov fio^Xoyrcu, — Clem. Alex. 



Strom, iii. 3. firi^h ikyT€i<rdy€iy r^ 
KOfffi^ ^v<rrvxfl<Foyras ir4povst /lAijJJi 
^xixopifytiv ry Bayar^ rp6<pi\y, Ch. 
vi. 

' Opus ex contrarietatum opposi* 
tionibus, Antitheses, cognominatum, 
et ad separationem legis et evangelii 
coactum; qua duos Deos dividens, 
proinde diversos, alterum alteiius 
instinimenti vel qnod magis est ustii 
dioere, testamenti ut exinde evange- 
lic quoqne secundum Antitheses ere* 



DOCTKISES OF MARCION. 



paaaionleaa; the other, though not unjoBt by nature, I 
infeeted by matter, — subject to all the pnssiona of^ 
man, — cruel, changeable ; the New Testament, espe- 
cially, as remodelled by Marcion, was holy, wise, ami- 
able ; the Old Testament, the Law, barbarous, inhuman, 
contradictory, aud detestable. On the plundering of 
the Egyptians, on the massacre of the Canaanites, on 
every metaphor which ascribed the actions and senti- 
ments of men to the Deity, Marcion enlarged with 
contemptuous superiority and contrasted it with the 
tone of the Gospel. It was to rescue mankind fiom 
the tyranny of this inferior and hostile deity, that the 
Supreme manifested himself in Jesus Christ. This i 
manifestation took place by his sudden appearance in 
the synagogue in Capernaum ; for Marcion swept away 
with remorseless hand all the earlier incidents in the 
Gospels. But the Messiah which was revealed in Christ | 
was directly the opposite to that announced by the I 
Prophets of the Jews, and of their God. He made no ' 
conquests ; he was not the Immfluuel ; he was not the ' 
son of David ; he came not to restore the temporal 
kingdom of Israel. His doctrines were equally oj^ 
posed : he demanded not an eye for an eye, or a tooth 
for a tooth ; but where one smote the right cheek, to 
tm-n the other. He demanded no sacrifices but that of 
the pure heart; be enjoined not the sensual and in- ' 
decent practice of multiplying the species ; he pro- 
scribed marriage. The God of the Jews, trembling for 
his authority, anned himself against the celestial in- 
vader of his territory ; he succeeded, in the geeming I 



1 

I 




Uhap.Y. 



THE GOSPEL OF MAICION. 



79 



ezBCotion of Christ irpoa the crosBy who, by his death, 
rescued the souls of the tnie belieTeis from the bondage 
of the Law ; jdesoended to the lower regions^ where he 
reseaed, Dot the jhohs and holy patriarchs, Abel, Enoch, 
Noah, Jacob, Moses, David, or Solomon, — ^these were 
the adhernits of the Demimge or material creator, — 
bnt his implacable enemies, sach as Cain and flsaa. 
After the ascension of the Bedeemer to heayen, the God 
of the Jews was to rest(M^ his subjects to their native 
land; and his temporal reign was to commence over his 
ffdthM bnt inferior subjects." 

The Gospel of Marcion was that of St Luke, adapted, 
by many omissions, and some alterations, to his theory. 
Every allusion to, -every metaphor from, marriage was 
carefaUy erased, and every passage amended or rejected 
which could in any way implicate the pure deity with 
the material world.* 



" I adhere to this somewhat harsher 
and less charitable summary of Mar- 
cionism. The milder view of Neauder, 
in which he had mitigated or softened 
off its harder tones, has been carried 
by Bonsen almost to admiration. I 
cannot think that a raei'e exa^oration 
of the Anti-Judaizing Pauline doc- 
trines could have goaded even Tertul- 
lian to such a fury of orthodox hatred. 
I am well aware that contemporaiy 
statements, when the writers are full 
of the passions of their times, are the 
worst authorities. But Tertullian 
wrote with the Antitheses, pi-obably 
with Marcion's Gospel, before him. 
The fragment of Hippolytus throws no 
light on the question. Of all the posi- 
tive paradoxes of my deai* fiiend, I 
confess that none seems to me so en- 
tirely boaelees as his ascription of the 



Epistle to Diognetus, that model of 
pure, simple, reasonable Christianity, 
which stands alone in that barren and 
fimtastic age, to the youth of Marcion. 
I cannot conceive the writer of that 
Epistle ever having become the author 
of the Antitheses. But one who has 
really made such discoveries, as Bunsen 
has in eaily Christian literature, may 
be indulged in some fancies, 

' This Gospel has been put to< 
gether, according to the various 
authorities, especially Tertullian, by 
M. Hahn. It is reprinted in the 
Codex Apocrjrphus Novi Testament!, 
by Thilo, of which one volume only 
has appeared. Among the remarkable 
alterations of the Gospels which most 
strongly characterise his system, wni 
that of the text so beautifully descrip* 
tive of the providence of God, — which 



80 THE CABPOCBATlANs, Boos 11 

These were the chief of the Gnostic sects ; bat they 
v»rtBUoior spread out into almost infinitely diversified 
snuiiitiBni. gubdiTisions, distinguished by some peculiar 
tenet or usage. The Carpocratians were avowed Ecieo 
tics ; they worshipped, as benefactors of tlie human race, 
the images of Zoroaster, Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, 
and Jesua Christ, as well as that of their own founder. 
Hy this school were received, possibly were invented) 
many of the astrologic or theurgic books attributed to 
Zoroaster and other ancient sages. The Jewish Scrip- 
tures were the works of inferior anwela ; of the Christian, 
they received only the Gospel of St. Matthew. The 
anpreme, nnknown, uncreated Deity, was the Monad ; 
the visible world was the creation, the domain of inferior 
beings. But the Carpocratian system was much sim- 
pler, and, in some respects, rejecting generally the 
eystem of .Skins or Emanations, approached much nearer 
to Christianity than those of most of the other Gnostics. 
The contest of Jesus Christ, who was the son of Joseph, 
according to their system, was a purely moral one. 
Theu- scheme revived the Oriental notion of the pre- 
existence of the soul. The soid of Jeans had a clearer 
and more distinct reminiscence of the original know- 
ledge (the Gnosis) and wisdom of their celestial state; 
and by communicating these notions to mankind, ele- 
vated them to the same superiority over the mundane 
deities. This perfection consisted in faith and charity, 
perhaps likewise in the ecstatic contemplation of the 



1 



I 



"niBkrthhfsininto 


hJBf on 


IliBevil 


might not deHIp hiniMlf with Iht tul- 


and the gouJ, ami tea 


delhm 


D dnttie 


ministralioD of their blessings. Tsr-* 


jUEt ind th? utijimt. 


Mat 


T. 4S. 


tull. adr. Marc. iv. 17. The eiqut- 


The saa agd tl.r rai 


l,t)i«i>e 


iDntei-inl 


mW Paisble of the Prodigal Son wu 


demenl., wero Ihe s 


ay<«on 


V of (he 


thrown out. The ftnat at the ead 


Gbd of nmltcL: ihe 


Siipitn 


e [tpily 


iicmuiits for its proscription. 



CHAP. V. THE OPHITES. 81 

Monad. EYeiything except faith and charity, — all good 
worksy all observances of human laws, which were esta- 
blished by mundane authority, — were exterior, and 
more than indifferent Hence, they were accused of 
recommending a community of property, and of women, 
— ^inferences which would be drawn from their avowed 
contempt for all human laws. They were accused, 
probably without justice, of following out these specula- 
tive opinions into practice. Of all heretics, none have 
borne a worse name than the followers of Carpocrates 
and his son and successor, Epiphanes/ 

The Ophites ' are, perhaps, the most perplexing of all 
these sects. It is difficult to ascertain whether the 
Serpent from which they took or received their name 
was a good or an evil spirit — the Agatho-daemon of the 
Egyptian mythology, or the Serpent of the Jewish and 
other Oriental schemes. With them, a quaternion seems 
to have issued from the primal Being, the Abyss, who 
dwelt alone with his Ennoia, or Thought. These were 
Christ and Sophia Achamoth, the Spirit and Chaos. 
The former of each of these powers was perfect, the 
latter imperfect. Sophia Achamoth, departing from 
the primal source of purity, formed laldabaoth, the 



^ I think that we may collect from regal privilege of acting as they pleased ; 
Clement of Alexandria, that the com- ' some, the Antitactse, thought it right 
mnnitj of women, in the Carpocratian ' to break the Seventh Commandment, 
system, was that of Plato. Clement | because it was uttered by the evil 
insinnates that it was carried into I Demiui^e. But these were obscure 
practice. Strom, iii. c. 2. According ; sects, and possibly their adversaries 
to Clement, the dififerent sects, or : drew these conclusions for them from 
sects of sects, justified their immo- i their doctrines. Strom. 1. iii. 
ralititt on different pleas. Some, the ; * Mosheim, p. 399, who wrote a 
Prodician Gnostics, considered public < particular dissertation on the Ophitsfr, 
pnwtitution a mystic commum'on ; • of which he distinguished two sects, a 
others, that all children of the primary ! Jewish and a Christiao. 
or good Deity might exercise their j 

VOL. II. O 



S2 



OEIENTAL GNOSTICISM. 



Book II. 



Prince of Darkness, the Demiurge, an inferior, but not 
directly malignant, being — ^the Satan, or Samael, or 
Michael. The tutelar angel of the Jews was Ophis, the 
Serpent — a reflection of laldabaoth. With others, the 
Serpent was the sjrmbol of Christ himself ; * and hence 
the profound abhorrence with which this obscure sect 
was beheld by the more orthodox Chi-istians. In other 
respects, their opinions appear to have approximated 
more nearly to the common Gnostic form. At the 
intercession of Sophia, Christ descended on the man 
Jesus, to rescue the souls of men from the firry of the 
Demiurge, who had imprisoned them in matter : they 
ascended through the realm of the seven planetary 
angels.** 



* M. Matter conjectured that they 
had derived the notion of the beneficent 
serpent, the emblem or symbol of 
Christ, from the bitizen serpent in the 
wilderness. Perhaps it was the Egyp- 
tian Agatho-dsemon. M. Matter's 
notion was right to a ceiiain extent as 
to one sect of the Ophites, the Peratse. 
See Philosophumena, p. 133. 

'" On the Ophites alone, the Refuta- 
tion of all Heresies promises to enlarge 
our knowledge; to me that promise 
has ended, on examination, in utter 
disappointment; it is darkness dark- 
ened, confusion worse confounded. 
Hippolytus devotes a whole book, 
which we have neaiiy perfect, to the 
tenets of four sects of Ophites. None 
of them agrees with what has been 
gathered from othei' sources, as ap- 
peal's from the text, which I leave un- 
altered. These sects are, the Naassenes, 
the Peratse, the Sethians, the Jus- 
tinians. Through all these run some 
common notions, the blending of in- 



» 



tellectual, physical, moral conceptions ; 
their perpetual impersonation ; the 
evolution of the ci*eative mind; the 
imprisonment of mind in matter, its 
emancipation from its bondage; the 
forcible blending up of the Christian 
tenets concerning Christ and the Holy 
Ghost with these repugnant and dis- 
cordant schemes. (The Serpent ap- 
peal's in all the four systems, but with 
a different character and office.) All 
delight in their triple form of thought, 
the intellectual (the vo€pi>v\ the life 
(the i^vx^K^v), tiie brute matter (the 
XoiKhv). 

The Naassenes are so called from 
the Hebrew word Nahash, a serpent ; 
and from Nahash they strangely de- 
rived the Greek ya6Sf a temple. 
Temples being universally raised 
throughout the world, showed the 
universality of Serpent-worship. With 
them the Serpent is the principle of 
moisture (i^ ^f»h) as with Thales th« 
Milesian, the origin and source of /UI 



OBAV.V. 



ORIENTAL GNOSTICISM. 



83 



Snch, in its leading branches, was the Gnosticism of 
the East, which rivalled the more genuine Christianity, 
if not in the number of its converts, in the activity with 
which it was disseminated. It arose simultaneously or 



things, rheir great chai-acteristic is 
the ooDstant labour to identify Chris- 
tianity with the Secret of all the Pagan 
Mysteries, Phrygian, Samothracian, 
Eleasinian. There is a wild confusion 
of the orgiastic superstition which pre- 
vailed so widely throi^h the Koman 
world, the worship of Cybele, with 
that of Christ. 

The Peratae were distinguished (they 
were Orientals) by a predominant in- 
fusion of astrological notions. Witli 
them the Sei-pent was a sort of Inter- 
mediate Being, the Son, the Word, 
between the Father, the primal Monad, 
and Matter. Ka64(€Tai oZv fi4<ros 
Tfis 0Xijs jcal TOW varphs 6 vldst ^ 

X^OS, 6 6<piS &6l KlVO^fltVOS TTphs 

iuchn\Tov rhv Trarepa ical KivovfievTiv 

With the Sethians the Sei-pent was 
the violent wind, which came out of 
darkness, the fii-stborn of the waters, 
and the generating principle of all 
things, specially of man. p. 142. 

With the Justinians (this sect, of 
coarse, has no relation with Justin 
Martyr) the Serpent approaches more 
nearly to his function in the beginning 
of the book of Genesis. But the 
fieduction of Eve is in a coarser and 
grosser form (p. 155). The Serpent 
is also the Tempter of our Lord in 
the wilderness, p. 157. 

I must say that throughout this book 
ihere is too much of Hippolytus, of 
fh? writer of the third century, proud 
?f Us knowledge of the Greek religi<m 



and the Greek philosophy. Ail these 
Ophites he would assume to be the 
earliest Gnostics (they first took the 
name), and so almost reaching up to 
the Apostolic times. But it is utterly 
incredible that there should have 
existed at that time any set of men 
who were equally familiar with the 
Old and New Testaments and the 
Greek poets ; who appealed to the Pen- 
tateuch and the Gospels, and to Homer, 
Pindar, Anacreon; who had antici- 
pated the identification of Christianity 
with the Secret of the Pagan Mysteries, 
of which they might almost seem to 
be the Hierophants; who had their 
mystic hymns in which the new and 
the old, the Oriental, and Greek and 
Christian notions, wei'e blended and 
confused. Hif^lytus appeals to, cites 
their writings, but of the age of those 
writings, I must presume to doubt bis 
critical discernment. 

Finally, I cannot think these smaller 
sects of any importance in Christian 
history, further than as testifying to 
that general fermentation of thought, 
that appetency for truth, that distress- 
ing and exciting want of satisfaction for 
the heart and soul and intellect of 
man, which Christianity found and 
stimulated to the utmost ; from which 
it suffered to a certain extent, but 
from which it emerged, if not in all 
its primal purity, with unsubdued 
energy and force; by which it sab> 
jugated the world. 

e2 



GSOSTICISM NOT POPCLAE. Book O, 



suceesaiTely in all the great centres of Christianity, in 
Alexandria, in Antiocb, in Edessa, in Ephesus. Many 
of its teachers — Valentinns, Marcion, and their fol- 
lowers — found their way to Eome. Their progress was 
especially among the higher and more opulent ; and, in 
their lofty pretensions, they claimed a superiority over 
the humbler Christianity of tlie vulgar. But, for this very 
niioiOctipn reason. Gnosticism, in itself, waa diametrically 
iiutpjpniw. opposite to the true Christian spuit: instead 
of being popular and universal, it was select and exclu- 
sive. It was another, in one respect a higher, form of 
Judaism, inasmuch as it did not rest its exclusiveuesB 
on the title of birth, but on especial knowledge (gnosis)) 
vouchsafed only to the enlightened and inwardly de- 
signated few. It was the establoBlunent of the Chrifr 
tians as a kind of religious privileged order, a theo 
philosophic aristocracy, whose esoteric doctrines soared 
far above the grasp and comprehension of the vulgar.* 
It was a philosophy rather than a religion ; at least Uie 
philosophic or speculative part would soon have pr&- 
dominated over the spiritual. They affected a profound 
and awful mystery; they admitted their disciples, m 
general, by slow and regular gradations. Gnostic Chrift- 
tianity, therefore, might have been a formidable anta- 
gonist to the prevailing philosophy of the times, but it 
would never have extirpated an ancient and deeply-- 
rooted religion ; it might have drained the schools of 
their hearers, but it never would have changed the tem- 
]iles into solitudes. It would have afiected only the- 
surface of society: it did not begin to work upward' 



• Tcrtnllisu taantsthcVmleDtinuns I dkaat qui occultaDt." 
— "nibil magu cunut qnaiii occul- VbIbiL 
Ui-e quill pi-Edimiit, si tamea prs- | 






CSbap. V. GNOSTICISM FRIENDLY TO PAGANISM. 85 

from, its depths, nor did it penetrate to that strong 
under-current of popular feeling and opinion which 
alone operates a profound and lasting change in the 
moral sentiments of mankind. 

With regard to Paganism, the Gnostics are accused 
of a compromising and conciliatory spirit, conciiuitory 
totally aUen to that of primitive Christianity. Paganism. 
They affected the haughty indifference of the philoso- 
phers of their own day, or the Brahmins of India, to the 
¥iilgar idolatry; scrupled not at a contemptuous con- 
fomity witii the established worship ; attended the rite« 
and the festivals of the Heathen ; partook of meats 
offered in sacrifioe, and, secure in their own intellectual 
or spiritual purity, conceived that no stain could cleave 
to tJieir uninfected spirits from this which, to most 
Christians, appeared a treasonable surrender of the vital 
principles of the faith. 

This criminal compliance of the Gnostics, no doubt, 
countenanced and darkened those charges of unbridled 
licentiousness of manners with which they are almost 
indiscriminately assailed by the early Fathers^ Those 
dark and incredible accusations of midnight meetings, 
where all the restraints of shame and of nature were 
thrown off, which Pagan hostility brought against the 
general body of the Christians, were reiterated by the 
Christians against these sects, whose principles were 
those of the sternest and most rigid austerity. They 
are accused of openly preaching the indifference of 
human action. The material nature of man was so 
essentially evil and malignant, that there was no neces- 
sity, as there could be no advantage, in attempting to 
correct its inveterate propensities. While, therefore, 
that nature might pursue, uncontrolled, its own innate 




and inalienable propensities, the serene and uiicontnini* 
(lated spirit of those, at least, who wore enlightened by 
the divine ray, might remaon aloof, either nnconsciuuB 
of, or, at least, unimrticipant in, the aberrations of its 
grovelliog consort. Such general charges, it is equally 
unjnst to believe, and impossible to refute. The dreamy 
indoleuce of mysticiam ia not unlikely to degenerate 
into voluptuous excess. The e.xcitement of mental, has 
often a strong effect on bodily, emotion. The party of 
the Gnostics may have coutained many whose passions 
were too strong for their principles, or who may have 
made their principles the slaves of tiieir passiona; 
but Christian Charity and sober historical criticism 
concur in rejecting these general accnsatiooa. Tha 
Gnostics were, mostly, imaginative, rather than practical, 
fanatics ; they indulged a mental, rather than corporeal, 
licence. The Carpocratians have been exposed to the 
moat obloquy. But, even in their case, the charitable 
doubts of dispassionate historical criticism are justified 
by those of an ancient writer, who declares his disbelief 
of any irreligious, lawless, or forbidden practices among 
these sectaries.^ 

It was the reaction, as it were, of Gnosticism, that 
produced the last important modification of Christiftnity, 
during the second century, the Montanism of Phrygia. 
But we have, at present, proceeded iu our relation of 
the contest between Orientalism and Christianity so far 



** Kaifi t^iifTpdirirt 






fii5tr«9, Tho^ used a coun 

p. But All tliia mu£^ 1 tJiiiik, 
}tpted with much rteervatioD, H 



Chap. V. *rHE MONTANISM OP PHRYGIA. 87 

beyond the period to which we conducted the contest 
with Paganism, that we reascend at once to the com- 
mencement of the second century. Montanism, however 
thus remotely connected with Gnosticism, stands alone 
and independent as a new aberration from the primitive ' 
Christianity, and will demand our attention in its in- 
fluence upon one of the most distinguished and effective 
of the early Christian writei*s. 



gg SECOND CEKTURY OF CHRISTIANITY, Book II 



CHAPTER VI. 

Ghmtianity during the prosperous period of the Boman Empire. 

With the second century of Christianity commenced 
R^E». the reiga of auotherra«e of Emperors. Trajan, 
SmmeS^ Hadrian, and the Antonines, were men of larger 
SSSd L?^ minds, more capable of embracing the vast em- 
tury. pjpg^ Q^^ Qf taking a wide and comprehensive 

survey of the interests, the manners, and the opinions 
of the various orders and races of men which reposed 
under the shadow of the Boman sway. They were not, 
as the first Caesars, monarchs of Home, governing the 
other parts of the world as dependent provinces ; but / 
sovereigns of the Western World, which had gradually i 
coalesced into one majestic and harmonious system. I 
Under the military dominion of Trajan, the Empire ap-vl 
peared to reassume the strengtU and enterprise of the /f> 
conquering Republic : he had invested the whole frontie/ 1 
with a defence more solid and durable than the strongeilb 
line of fortresses, or the most impregnable wall — ^the 
terror of the Roman arms, and the awe of Roman dis- 
cipline. If the more prudent Hadrian withdrew the 
advanced boundaries of the empire, it seemed in the 
consciousness of strength, disdaining the occupation ot 
wild and savage districts, which rather belonged to the 
vet unreclaimed realm of barbarism, than were fit to be 
incorporated in the dominion of civilisation. Even in 
the East, the Euphrates appeared to be a boundary 
traced by nature for the dominion of Rome. Hadrian 



Chap. VI, 



MODERATION OP THE EMPERORS. 



89 



( 



was the first emperor who directed his attention to the 
general internal affairs of the whole population of ther \ 
empire. The spirit of jurisprudence prevailed during 
the reign of the Antonines ; and the -main object of the 
ruling powers seemed to be the uniting under one gene- 
ral system of law the various members of the great / 
political confederacy. Thus, each contributed to the / 
apparent union and durability of the social edifice. This / 
period has been considered by many able writers, a kind 
of golden age of human happiness.* What, then, was 
the effect of Christianity on the general character of the 
times; and how far were the Christian communities 
excluded from the general felicity ? 

It was impossible that the rapid and universal pro- 
gress of a new religion should escape the notice of minds 
^ so occupied with the internal as well as the external 
affairs of the whole empire. But it so happened (the 
Christian will adnlire in this singular concurrence of 
circumstances the overruling power of a beneficent 
Deity) that the moderation and humanity of the Em- 
perors stepped in, as it were, to allay at this particular 
crisis the dangers of a general and inevitable collision 



* This theoiy is most ably deve- 
loped hy Hegewisch. See the Transla- 
tion of his Essay, by M. Sol vet. Paris, 
1 834. The silence of history, that too 
fiuthful record in general of the folly 
and misery, of the wars and devastating 
conquests of mankind, may seem a fall 
testimony to the happiness of the sera ; 
bat this silence is perhaps mainly due 
to other causes. In &ct, there is, pro- 
t)erly speaking, no history of the times ; 
^nd even if there were what is ordi- 
Ihurily received as history, it might 
throw but dim light on tiie condition 



of the masses of mankind throughout 
the vast empire. Peace was un- 
doubtedly in itself a blessing; but how 
much oppression, t3rranny of the go- 
vernment over all, of class over class, 
may be hid under the smooth sui-face 
of peace 1 The vast, comprehensive, 
and age-enduring fabric of Roman 
jurisprudence, which began to rise at 
this time, bears nobler witness to the 
wisdom of the rulers, and to the disti*i- 
butiou of equal justice, that best guard 
and guarantee of human happiness, 
over the whole empire* 



with the temporal government. Christianity itself was 
cbancirrs of j"^ ^ ^^"■^ Btate of advancement in which, 
Snm^^JTio thongh it had begun to threaten, and even to 
S^qfo?™*' ™ake most alarming encroachments on the 
QiiibtiiuiLij. estabhshed Polytheism, it had not so com- 
pletely divided the whole race of mankind, as to force 
the heads of the Polytheistic party, the oiHcial conser- 
vators of the existing order of things, to take violent 
and decisive meitsures for its suppresaion. The temples, 
though, perhaps, becoming less crowded, were in fen 
places deserted ; the alarm, though, perhaps, in many 
towns it waa deeply brooding in the minda of the priest- 
hood, and of those connected by zeal or by interest mth 
the maintenance of Paganism, was not so profound or so 
general, as imperiously to require the interposition of 
the civil authorities. Tlie milder or more indifferent 
character of the Emperor had free scope to mitigate or 
to arrest the arm of persecution. The danger was not 
80 pressing but that it migiit be averted : that which 
had arisen thus suddenly, and unexpectedly (so little 
were the wisest probably aware of the real nature of the 
revolution working in the minds of men) might die 
away with as much rapidity. Under an Emperor, in- 
deed, who should have united the vigour of a Trajan 
and the political forethought of a Hadrian with the 
sanguinary relentlessness of a Nero, Christianity would 
have had to pass a tremendous ordeal. Now, however, 
the collision of the new rehgion with the civil power 
was only occasional, and, as it were, fortuitous ; and in 
these occasional conflicts with the ruling powers, we 
constantly appear to trace the character of the reigning 
sovereign. 

Of these emperors, Trajan possessed the most powerM 
and vigorous mind — a consummate general, a humane 



1 



I 



CHAP. VI. HADBIAN — ANTONINUS PIUS. 91 

but active ruler: Hadrian was the profoundest states- 
mail) the Antonines the best men. The con- 
duct ot Traian was that of a military sove- perorftom 

A.D 98 to 11& 

reign, whose natural disposition was tempered 
with humanity — prompt, decisive, never unnecessarily 
prodigal of blood, but careless of human life if it ap- 
peared to stand in the way of any important design, or 
to hazard that paramount object of the government, the 
public peace. Hadrian was inclined to a more 

. . , . rrn 1 -rk Hadrian Em- 

temponsms: policy. The more the Roman perorfrom 
Empire was contemplated as a whole, the more 
the coexistence of multifiirious religions might appear 
compatible with the general peace. Christianity might, 
in the end, be no more dangerous than the other foreign 
religions, which had flowed, and were still flowing in, 
fix)m the East. The temples of Isis had arisen through- 
out the empire, but those of Jupiter or Apollo had not 
lost their votaries r the Eastern mysteries, the Phrygian, 
at a later period the Mithriac, had mingled, very little 
to their prejudice, with the general mass of the prevailing 
superstitions. The last characteristic of Christianity 
which would be distinctly understood, was its invasive 
and uncompromising spirit. The elder Ante- Antoninus 
ninus may have pursued- from mildness of ^^Jto^' 
character the course adopted by Hadrian from "^• 
policy. The change which took place during the reign 
of Marcus AureKus may be attributed to the circum- 
stances of the time ; though the pride of philosophy, as 
well as the established religion, might begin to take th# 
alarm. 

Christianity had probably spread with partial ana 
very unequal success in different quarters : its converts 
oore in various cities or districts a very different propor- 
tion to the rest of the population. Nowhere, perhaps, 



92 BirHTNIA — LETTEK OF PLINY. Book a 

had it advanced with greater rapidity than in the nortb- 
ern provinces of Asia Minor, where the inhabitants 
were of very mingled descent, neither pnrely Greek, 
nor essentially Asiatic, with a considerable proportion 
of Jewish colonists, cliiefly of Babylonian or Syrian, not 
ChnBiinniij of Palestinian origin. It is here, in the pro- 
«i4 0iei-j- vince of Bithyiiia, that Polytheism first dis- 
vinoM. covered the deadly enemy which was nnder- 
iii ' mining her authority. It was here that the 
first cry of distre^ was ottered; and complaints of 
deserted temples and less frequent sacrificea were brought 
before the tribimal of the government The memorable 
correspondence between Pliny and Trajan is the most 
valuable record of the early Christian history during 
this period,'' It represents to us Paganism already 
claiming the alliance of power to maintain its decaying 
ioflueDce ; ChriBtianity proceeding in its silent conreej 
imperfectly understood by a wise and polite Pagan, yet 
still with nothing to offend his moral judgement, except 
its contumacious repugnance to the common usages of 
society. This contumacy, nevertheless, according to the 
recognised principle of passive obedience to the laws of 
the Empire, was deserving of the severest punishment. 
Letter of 'Ifa^ appeal of Pliny to the supreme authority 
puaj. j-jjj, ad\-ice as to the course to be pursued with 
these new, and, in most respects, harmless delmqueuts, 
unquestionably implies that no general practice had yet 



1 

I 

I 





ANSWER OF TEAJAN. 93 

ieen laid down to guide the provincial governors in 
Buch emergencies." The answer of Trajan is Answer or 
characterised by a spirit of moderation. It ^"^' 
betrays humane anxiety to allow all such offenders 
as were not forced uoder the cogiuBance of the pobhc 
tribimals, to elude persecution. Nevertheless it dis- 
tinctly intimates, that by some existing law, or by the 
ordinary power of the proviucial governor, the Chris- 
tiaus were amenable to the severest penalties, to torture, 
and even to capital punishment. Such punishment had 
already been inflicted by PUny ; as Goveruor he had 
been forced to interfere by accusations lodged before 
his tribunaL An anonymous libel, or impeachment, 
had denoimced numbers of persons, some of whom alto- 
gether disclaimed, otliers declared that they had re- 
nounced Christianity. With that uuthinking barbarity 
with which id those times euch punishments were in- 
flicted on persons in inferior station, two servants, 
females — it is possible they were deaconesses — were put 
to the torture, to ascertain the truth of the vulgar accu- 
sations against the ChristiauB. On their evidence, Pliny 
could detect nothing further than a " culpable and ex- 
travagant superstition." "^ The only facts which he could 
discover were, that they had a custom of meeting toge- 
ther before daylight, aud singing a hymn to Christ as 
-God. They were bound together by no unlawful sacra- 
ment, but only under mutual obligation not to commit 
theft, robbeiy, adultery, or fraud. They met a second 
time in the day, and partook together of food, but that 
of a perfectly innocent kind. The test of guilt to which 



unprcoedeuial. 
I '' FiBVa et immodlciiBuperatilJ 



EXECUTIONS OEDEKED BY TLIXT. Eocwil 



he submitted the more ohstinate delmquents, was adora- 
tion before the statues of the Gods and of the Emperor, 
and the malediction of Chriat. Those who refused he 
ordered to be led out to execution." Such was the sum- 
mary pi-ocees of the Roman Governor ; and the appro- 
bation of the Emperor clearly shows that he had not 
exceeded the recognised limits of his authority. Neither 
Trajan nor the senate had before this issued any editrt 
on the subject. The rescript to Pliny invested him with 
no new powers; it merely advised him, as he had done, 
to use his actual powers with discretion,' neither to 
encourage the denunciation of such criminals, nor to 
proceed without fair and unquestionable evidence. The 
system of anonymous delation, by which private malice 
might wreak itself, by false or by unnecessary cliarges, 
upon its enemies, Trajan reprobates in that generous 
spirit with which the wiser and more virtuous emperora 
cousfantly repressed that most di^aceful iniquity of 
the times,^ But it is manifest, from the esecntions 
ordered by Pliny and sanctioned by the approbation of 
the Emperor, that Christianity was already an offence 
amenable to capital punishment," and this, either under 
some existing statute, under the common law of the 
Empire which invested the provincial governor with the 
arbitrary power of life and death, or lastly, what in this 
instance cannot have been the case, the summum impe- 
rium of the Emperor.' WhQe then in the individual the 



1 



I 

i 




wem sent for trisl 


^ Rome. "AW 


quift ciTes Romani ei 


mnt, aiaaUrl \o 






1 This rescript or 


WJWM of Tnijm, 


approving of the n 


Biiner in wbieU 



Chap. VI. POWER OF PROVINCIAL GOVERNORS. 



96 



profession of Christianity might thus, by the summary 
sentence of the governor and the tacit approbation of 
the Emperor, be treated as a capital offence, and the 
provincial governor might appoint the measure and the 
extent of the punishment, all public assemblies for the 
purpose of new and unauthorised worship might likewise 
be suppressed by the magistrate ; for the police of the 
Empire always looked with the utmost jealousy on all 
associations not recognised by the law ; and resistance 
to such a mandate would call down, or the secret hold- 
ing of such meetings after their prohibition would incur, 
any penalty ^hich the conservator of public order 
might think proper to inflict upon the delinquent. Such 
then was the general position of the Christians with the 
ruL'ng authorities. They were guilty of a crime against 
the state, by introducing a new and unauthorised reli- 
gion, or by holding assemblages contrary to the internal 
regulations of the Empire. But the extent to which the 
law v/ould be enforced against them — ^how far Chris- 
tianity would be distinguished from Judaism and other 
foreign religions, which were permitted the free esta- 
blishment of their rites — with how much greater jealousy 
their secret assemblies would be watched than those of 
other mysteries and esoteric religions — all this would 
depend upon the milder or more rigid character of the 
governor, and the willingness or reluctance of their 
fellow-citizens to arraign them before the tribunal of 
the magistrates. This in turn would depend on the 



bis conduct, is converted by Mosheim 
into a new law, which from that time 
became one of the statutes of the Em- 
pire. ** Hsec Trajan i lex inter publicas 
Imperii sanctiones relata" (p. 234). 
Trajan's words ezpressly%leclare that 



no certain rule of proceeding can be 
laid down, and leave almost the whole 
question to the discretion of the ma- 
gistrate. ** Neque enim in universura 
aliquid, quod quasi oertam forman 
habet, conbtitui potest." Tnij. ad Plin 



96 JEWS KOT AVERSE TO THEATEES. Book H, ■ 

circiimBtances of the place and the time ; on the capriee" 
of their enemieB; on their own disuretioTi ; on their 
success and the apprehensions and jealousies of their 
opponents. In general, so long as they made no visible 
impression upon society, so long as their absence from 
the religions rites of the city or district, or even irom 
the games and theatrical eshibitiona which were essen- 
tial parts of the existing Polytheism, caused no sensible 
diminution in the eoncoursG of the worshippers, their 
unsocial and self-secluding disposition would be treated 
with contempt and pity ratiier than with animosity. 
The internal decay of the spirit of Polytheism had little 
eftect on its outward splendour. The philosophic party, 
who despised the popular faith, were secure in their raiik 
or in their decent conformity to the public ceremoniaL 
The t.hwjr y gf all the systems of philosophy was to 
avoid unnecessary collision with the popular religious 
sentiment : their superiority to the vulgar was flattered, 
rather than offended, by the adherence of the latter to 
their native superstitions. In the publio exhibitions, 
the followers of all other foreign religions met, as on a 
Theja-snoi common ground. In the theatre or the hip- 
tbMWi^ podrome, the worshipper of Isis or of Mithra 
juonMnKim. jnijigieii with the mass of those who still ad- 
hered to Bacchus or to Jupiter. Even the Jews, ia 
many parts, at least at a later period, in some instances 
at the present, betrayed no aversion to the popular 
games or amusements. Though, in Palestbe, the elder 
Herod had met with a sullen and intractable resistance 
in the religious body of the people against his attempt 
to introduce Gentile and idolatrous games into the Holy 






I 



Land, yet it 

accoramodati 
stood high 



probable that the foreign Jews were more 
g. A Jewish player, named Aliturus, 
the favour of Nero ; nor does it appear 



CHAP. rr. CHKISTIANS ABSTAIN FROM THEM. 97 

that he had abandoned his religion. He was still con- 
nected with his own race ; and some of the priesthood 
did not disdain to owe their acquittal, on certain 
charges on which they had been sent prisoners to 
Borne, to the actor's interest with the Emperor or with 
the ruling favourite Poppsea. After the Jewish war, 
multitudes of the prisoners were forced to exhibit them- 
selves as gladiators; and at a later period, the con- 
fluence of the Alexandrian Jews to the theatres, where 
they equalled in numbers the Pasran spec- christians 

. , ,., I* Ai • rni abstain from 

tators, endangered the peace oi the city. The them. 
Christians alone stood aloof from exhibitions which, in 
their higher and nobler forms, arose out of, and were 
closely connected with, the Heathen religion; were 
performed on days sacred to the deities; introduced 
the deities upon the stage ; and, in short, were among 
the principal means of maintaining in the public mind 
its reverence for the old mythological fables. The 
sanguinary diversions of the arena, and the licentious 
voluptuousness of some of the other exhibitions, were no 
less oflensive to their humanity and to their modesty 
than those more strictly religious to their piety. Still, 
so long as they were comparatively few in number, and 
did not sensibly diminish the concourse to these scenes 
of public enjoyment, they would be rather exposed to 
individual acts of vexatious interference, of ridicule, or 
contempt, than become the victims of a general hostile 
feeling: their absence would not be resented as an 
insult upon the public, nor as an act of punishable dis- 
respect against the local or more widely worshipped 
deity to whose honour the games were dedicated. The 
time at which they would be in the greatest danger 
from what would be thought their suspicious or disloyal 
refusal to join in the public renoicings, would be precisely 

VOL. II. H 



DAflGEH OF POLITICAL HEJOICINGS. 



that which has b**en conjectured with much iDgennity 
and probability to have been the occasion of their being 
thus committed with the popular sentiment and with 
the government — the celebration of the birtliday or 
iiuiBoroii the accession of the Emperor." With the eere- 
'^m^ "^ monial of those days, even if, as may have been 
rejoicinei. jjjg ^^^g^ jjjg actual adoration of the statue of 
the Emperor was not an ordinary part of the ritual, 
much which was strictly idolatrous would be mingled 
dp ; and the ordinary excuse of the Christians to such 
charges of disaffection, that they prayed with the utmost 
fervour for the welfare of the Emperor, would not be 
admitted, either by the sincere attachment of the 
people and of the government to a virtuous, or their 
abject and adulatory celebration of a cruel and tyranni- 
cal, Emperor. 

Tliis crisis in the fate of Christiaiiity— thia transitiou 
from safe and despised obscurity to dangerous and 
obnoxious importance — would of course depend on the 
comparative rapidity of its progress in different quarters. 
In Bithynia, the province of Pliny, it had attained that 
height in little more than seventy years after the death 
of Christ. Though a humane and enlightened govern- 
ment might still endeavour to close its eyes upon its 
multiplying numbers and expanding influence, the keener 
sight of jealous interest, of rivalry in the command of 
the popular mind, and of mortified pride, already anti- 
cipated the time when this i'ormidable antagonist might 
balance, might at length overweigh, the failing powers 



1 



* The conjecture of Pagi. thnt (he 


(mthere«.lllorll2). 


»«t«mely 


attentim at the goyornment was 


prohsbli;. Pogi quDt« 


no pOSBIgH 


directed to the Chrirtiaoa by their 


of Plinjr on the subject 


of th«Nge- 


etuidiag aloof from the festivjJs which 


neral rejoidogs. Critic* 


inBiroD. ' 




100. 





i 



f OLITICAl STATE OP THE EAST. 99 

' Polytlieism, Under a less candid governor thaii 
Pliny, and an Emperor less hmnane and dispassionate 
Plihaii Trajan, the exterminating sword of persecution 
I would have been let loose, and a relentless and sys- 
tematic edict for the suppression of Christianity would 
have hunted down its followers in every quarter of the 
empire, 

Not only the wisdom and humanity of Trajan, but 
the military character of his reign, would tend to divert 
his attention from that which belonged rather to the 
internal administration of the empire. It is pmbannooa- 
(ar from impossible, though the conjecture ^SraiOm" 
is not countenanced by any allusion in the 1^'ih'f m» 
despatch of Pliny, that the measures adopted "f""'^'- 
against the Christians were not entirely unconnected 
with the political state of the East, The Boman Em- 
pire, in the Mesopotaraian province, was held on a 
precarious tenure ; the Parthian Idngdom had acquired 
new vigour and energy, and, during great part of his 
reign, the slate of the East must have occupied the 
active mind of Trajan. The Jewish population of Baby- 
lonia and the adjacent provinces was of no incousider- 
able importance in the impending contest- There is 
strong ground for supposing that the last insurrection of 
the Jews, under Hadrian, was connected with a rising of 
their brethren in Mesopotamia, no doubt secretly, if not 
openly, fomented by the intrigues, and depending on the 
support, of the king of Parthia. This was at a con- 
siderably later period ; yet, during the earlier part of 
the reign of Trajan, the insurrection had already com- 
menced in Egypt and in Cyrene, and in the island of 
Cyprus, and no sooner were the troops of Trajan engaged 
on the eastern irontier, towarda the close of his reign, 
) Jews rose up in all these provinces, and wero 



too JEWISH REBELLION. Book O. 1 

not subdued till after they had perpetrated and endured 
the most terrific massacres." Throughout the Eastern 
wars of Trajan this spirit was most hkelj- known to be 
fermenting in the minds of the whole Jewish population, 
not only in the insurgent districts, but in Palestine and 
other parts of the empire. The whole race, which 
occupied in such vast numbers the conterminous regions, 
would be watched, therefore, with hostile jealousy by 
the Roman governors, already prejudiced against their 
unruly and ungovernable character, and awakened to 
more than ordinary vigilance by the disturbed aspect of 
the times. The Christians stood in a singular and am- 
biguous position between the Jewish and Pagan popu- 
lation ; many of them probably descended from, and 
connected with, the Jews. Their general peaceful 
habita and orderly conduct would deserve the protection 
of a parental government ; stiil their intractable and per- 
severing resistance to the rehgious institutions of the 
Empu-e might throw some suspicion on the sincerity of 
their civil obedience. The unusnal assertion of religious, 
might be too closely allied wth that of political, inde- 
pendence. At all events, the dubious and menacing 
state of the East required more than ordinary watchful- 
ness, and a more rigid plan of government in the adja- 
cent provinces ; and thus the change in society, which 
was working unnoticed in the more peaceful and less 
Cliristianised West, in the East might be forced upon 
the attention of an active and inquiring ruler. The 
apprehensions of the inhabitants themselves would be 
more keenly ahve to the formation of a separate and 
secluded party within their cities; and religious ani- 



Orap. VI. 



PERSECUTION UNDER TRAJAN. 



101 



mosity would eagerly seize the opportunity of impli- 
cating its enemies in a charge of disaffection to the 
existing government. Nor is there wanting evidence 
that the acts of persecution ascribed to Trajan were, in 
fact, connected with the military movements of the 
Emperor. The only authentic Acts are those of Simeon, 
Bishop of Jerusalem ; I cannot admit those of Ignatius, 
Bishop of Antioch.*^ In the prefatory observations to 
the former, it is admitted that this martyrdom was a local 
act of violence. The more celebrated trial of Ignatius is 
stated to have taken place before the Emperor himself 
at Antioch, when he was preparing for his Eastern cam- 
paign. The Emperor is represented as kindling to 
anger at the disparagement of those gods on whose pro- 
tection he reckoned in the impending war. " What ! Is 
our religion to be treated as senseless ? Are the gods, on 
whose alliance we rely against our enemies, to be turned 
to scorn?"- But the whole interview with Trajan is 
too legendary to command authority. Nevertheless, at 
that time there were circumstances which account with 
singular likelihood for that sudden outburst of persecu- 
tion in Antioch. Trajan knew that the whole Jewish 
world was in a state of actual, or of threatened insurrec- 
tion. It is probable that the clearest understanding, 
agitated by alarm and hatred, would lose, if it had yet 
attained, any distinct discernment of the difference 
between Jews and Christians. Hardly two years before, 
the Christians had been denounced by a provincial 
governor in the East as dangerous disturbers of the 



* See them in Rnmart, Selecta et 
sincere Martjrum Acta. 

** *H/ic7f odp aroi HoKovfitp Karh 
vovp fi^ ^X^^^ Otohs, oTs Kcd xpc^A^Oa 
^vfifidxois 9fhi robs voKt/Alws, 



The Jewish legends are full of acts of 
personal cruelty, ascribed to Trejan, 
mingled up, as usual, with historical 
errors and anachronisms. See Hiat 
vif Jews ii. 418. 



102 IGNATIUS. BISHOP OF AJJTIOCU. 



religion, therefore of the peace of the Empire. At thi 
very time ftn earthquake, more than usualiy terrible 
and destnictive, shook the cities of the East, Antioch 
suffered its most appalling ravages — Antioch, crowded 
with the legionaries prepared for the Emperor's invasion 
of the East, with ambassadors and tributary kings from 
all parts of the East. The city shook through all its 
streeta; houses, palaces, theatres, temples fell crashing 
down. Many were killed : the Consul Pedo died of his 
hurts. The Emperor himself hardly escaped through a 
window, and took refuge in the Circus, where he passecl 
some days in the open air. Whence this terrible blow 
but from the wrath of the Gods, who must be appeased' 
by unusual sacrifices ? This was towards the end of" 
January ; early in Eehmary the Christian Bishop, 
Ignatius, was arrested. We know how, during this cen- 
tury, at every period of public calamity, whatever that 
calamity might be, the cry of the panic-stricken HeatheiW 
was, '■ The Christians to the lions ! " It may be that, itt 
Trajan's humanity, in order to prevent a general ma*; 
sacre by the infuriated populace, or to give greater 
solemnity to the sacrifice, the execution was ordered to 
take place, not in Antioch, but in Home. 

From the Epistles of Ignatius " (I confine myself to 
the three short Syriac Epistles, for which we are indebted 
to I)r. Cureton) it is manifest that this was no general 
persecution. Throughout Ids journey the "Bishop of 
Antioch " is in free communication and correspondence 
with the Christian communities, and the most eminent 



* 1 owe this siiggection to the u 

pitity nf Biinsfn (Christianitj and events, Eeema to 

Mankind, p. 8S). But thachronologj- their historioil toi 

i« from FyDBs Clint™, F»<i Hellenin", wtipUon of tile a 

who, though he quota ■uthdiitia for Dion Casdua, lirili. 



lis V 




Chap. VI. ESTIMATE OF TRAJAN'S CHAKACTER. 



103 



Bishops of Asia Minor, who appear to be in perfect 
security ; Ignatius alone is in danger. Of this solitary 
danger he is proud. There is throughout a wild eagerness 
for martyrdom (how different from the calm serenity of 
St. Paul !). As he would'thus during his journey court, 
he may reasonably be supposed, in Antioch to have pro- 
voked, martyrdom ; at least he would not have allayed by 
prudent concession the indignation and anger of the Go- 
vernment. He even deprecates the interference of his 
Christian friends in his behalf. He fears lest their ill- 
timed, and, as he thinks, cruelly oflScious love might by 
some influence (influence which implies their own com- 
plete exemption from danger) deprive him of that glorious 
crown. He is apprehensive lest their unwelcome appeal 
to the Imperial clemency might meet with success. 

Trajan, indeed, is absolved, at least by the almost 
general voice of antiquity, from the crime of persecuting 
the Christians.*^ The legend of his redemption from 
purgatory, at the prayer of Pope Gregory I. (Dante, 
Purgatorio, x. 47), and his appearance in heaven as one 
of the five heathens to whom salvation was vouchsafed 



** The recent boasted discovery of a 
catacomb, near the seventh milestone 
on the Via Nomentana, where Alex- 
ander, Bishop of Rome in the reign 
of Trajan, who is promoted into a 
martyr, was buried; with a chapel 
(contemporaiy, as it is boldly asserted) 
dedicated to his memory and worahip, 
is a pare religions romance. A cata- 
comb there is, from which the remains 
of S. Alexander are said to have been 
i*emoved by Pope Paschal, a Pope of 
almost the darkest period in the Papal 
annals, A.D. 817-824. Of this there 
is not the shadow of a shade of his- 
torical evideoce. As to the chapel (I 



have visited the spot, and inspected 
the ruins, and am confident that it 
was never subterranean ; no part of 
the catacomb). It was no doubt of 
about the age of Jerome; when pil- 
grimage to, and worship in, such edi- 
fices, sacred to the memory of martjrrs, 
who were multiplied according to the 
demand, had become a passion. Ex- 
cepting of Ignatius, probably of Simeon 
of Jerusalem, there is no authentic mar^ 
tyrdom in the reign of Trajan. The 
letters of Ignatius — the genuine letters 
— are conclusive against any persecu- 
tion of the Christians in Rome* 



104 HEIGN OF RADHIAN. 



(Paradiso, xx. 43), would hardly have grown up, if there 
had been any traditiun of him as another Neio, De<;iii^ 
or Diocletian. 

The cosmopolite and indefatigable mind of Hadrian 
Hiidrim Em- waa more likely to discern with accuracy, and 
iiT. ' * estimate to its real extent, the growing influence 
of the new religion. Hadrian waa, stiU more than his 
predecessor, the Emperor of the West rather than the 
monarch of Rome. His active genius withdrew itself 
altogether from warlike enterprise and foreign conquest } 
its whole care waa centered on the consolidation of the 
empire witliin its narrower and uncontested boundaries, 
and on the internal regulation of the vast confederacy 
of nations which were gradually becoming more and 
more assimilated, as subjects or members of the great 
European empire. The remotest provinces for the first 
time beheld the presence of the Emperor, not at the 
head of an army summoned to defend the insulted 
barriers of the Roman territory, or pushing forward the 
advancing line of conquest ; but in more peaceful array, 
providing for the future security of the frontier by im' 
pregnable fortresses; adorning the more flourishing 
cities with public buildings, bridges, and aqueducts; 
inquiring into the customs, manners, and even the 
religion, of the more distant parts of the world ; en- 
couraging commerce ; promoting the ails ; in short, 
improving, by salutary regulations, for this long period 
of peace, the prosperity and civilisation of the whole 
empire. Gaul, Britain, Greece, Syria, Egypt, AfricOi 
were in turn honoured by the presence, enriched by the 
liberality, and benefited by the wise policy of the Em- 
peror.' His personal character showed the same in- 






1 



CHAP. VL 



HIS CHARACTER. 



105 



cessant activity and politic versatility. On the frontier, 
at the head of the army, he put on the hardi- character of 
hood and simplicity of a soldier ; disdained any ^«*"*°- 
distinction, either of fare or of comfort, from the meanest 
legionary ; and marched on foot, through the most in- 
clement seasons. In the peaceful and voluptuous cities 
of the South he became the careless and luxurious Epi- 
curean. Hadrian treated the established religion with 
the utmost respect; he officiated with solemn dignity 
as supreme pontiff, and at Kome affected disdain or 
aversion for foreign religions.* But his mind w as es- 
sentially imbued wi th the philfl gophfc spirit : ^ he vras 
tempted by every abstruse research, and every forbidden 
inquiry had irresistible attraction for his curious and 
busy temper.^ At Athens he was in turn the simple 
and rational philosopher, the restorer of the splendid 
temple of Jupiter Olympius, and the awe-struck wor- 
shipper in the Eleusinian mysteries.^ In the East, he 



reUed. (Compare Eckhel, vi. 486.) 
He looked into the crater of Etna 
saw the sun rise from Mount Casius 
ascended to the cataracts of the Nile 
heard the statue of Memnon. He 
imported exotics from the East. The 
journeys of Hadrian are traced, in a 
note to M. Solvet's translation of 
Hegewisch, cited above, Tertullian 
calls him " curiositatum omnium ex- 
plorator." ApoL i. v. Eusehius, H. 
E. V, 5, irdpra rh, irtpUpya iroAw- 
jrpayfiop&p, 

* Sacra Romana diligentissim^ cu- 
ravit, peregrina contempsit. Spai'tian. 
in Hadrian. 

* Les autres sentimoits de ce prince 
sont tr^s difficiles k connattre. II 
n'onbrassa aucun secte, et ne fut ni 
Academiden, ni Stdden, encore mcKfaoB 



Epicurien ; il parut constamment livr^ 
k cette incertitude d'opinions, fruit de 
la bizarrerie de son caract^re, et d'un 
savoir superficiel ou maldiger^. St. 
Croix, ubi supra. 

* In the Ceesiirs of Julian, Hadrian 
is described in the pregnant phrase 
iroKvirpayfiov&v rot &,Tr6fi^rjTa, — 
busied about all the secret religions. 

« The Apology of Quadratus was 
presented on Hadrian's visit to Athens, 
when he was initiated in the Mysteries ; 
that of Aristides when he became 
Epoptes, A.D. 131. Warburton con- 
nects the hostility of the celebrators 
of the Mysteries towards Christianity 
with the Apology of Quadratus, and 
quotes a passage from Jerome to this 
effect. Compare R^ath's Reliquia 
SttQFse, i 70. 



108 HAOaiAN'S POLICY. Book a 

aspired to penetrate the recondite aecrets of magic, and 
professed himself an adept injudicial astrology. In the 
midst of all this tampering with foreign religions, he at 
once paid respect to and outraged the prevailing creed 
by the deification of Antinoua, in whose honour quin- 
quennial games were established at Mantinea; a city 
built, and a temple, with an endowment for a priest- 
hood/ founded and called by hia name, in Egypt : hia 
statues assumed the symbols of various deities. Acts 
like these, at this critical period, must have tended to 
alienate a large portion of the thinking class, already 
wavering in their cold and doubtful Polytheism, to any 
purer or more ennobling system of religion. 

Hadrian not merely surveyed the surface of society, 
but his sagacity seemed to penetrate deeper into the 
relations of the different classes to each other, and into 
the more secret workmgs of the social system. Hie 
regulations for the mitigation of slavery were recom- 
mended, not by humanity alone, but by a wise and 
prudent policy.' It was impossible that the rapid growth 
of Christianity could escape the notice of a mind so in- 
quiring aa that of Hadrian, or that he could be altogether 
Hsdrt»n'< blind to its ultimate bearings on the social 
S^'chrtB- state of the empire. Yet the generally himiaue 
tumii)', g^jj^ pacific character of his government would 
he a security against violent measures of persecution ; 
and the liberal study of the varieties of human opinion 
would induce, if not a wise and rational spirit of tolera- 
tion, yet a kind of contemptuous indifference towards 
the most inexplicable aberrations from the prevailing 
opinions. The apologists for Christianity, Quadratus 



Chap. VI, HIS FAIRNESS TO THE CHBISTIANB. 



107 



and Aristides, addressed their works to the Emperor, 
who does not appear to have repelled their respectful 
homage.* The rescript which he addressed, in the 
early part of his reign, to the proconsul of Asia, afforded 
the same protection to the Christians against the more 
formidable danger of popular animosity, which Trajan 
had granted against anonymous delation. In some of the 
Asiatic cities their sullen and unsocial absence from the 
public assemblies, from the games, and other public 
exhibitions, either provoked or gave an opportunity for 
the latent animosity to break out against them. A 
general acclammation would sometimes demand their 
punishment. ^*The Christians to the lions!" was the 
fierce outcry ; and the names of the most prominent 
or obnoxious of the community would be denounced 
with the same sudden and imcontroUable hostility. A 
weak or superstitious magistrate trembled before the 
popular voice, or lent himself a willing instrument to 
the fury of the populace. The procoDsul Serenus Gra- 
nianus consulted the Emperor as to the course to be 
pursued on such occasions. The answer of Hadrian is 
addressed to Minucius Eundanus, probably the successor 
of Granianus. It enacts that, in the prosecution of 
the Christians, the formalities of law should be strictly 
complied with ; that they should be regularly arraigned 
before the legal tribunal, not condemned on the mere 
demand of the populace, or in compliance with a lawless 
outcry.^ The edict does credit to the humanity and 



* See the fragments in Routh, Reli- 
quise Sacrse, i. 69-78. 

*» Justin Martyr, Apol. i. 68, 69. 
Kuseb. H. E. iv. 9. Mosheim, whose 
opinions on the state of the Christians 
are coloured by too lenient a view of 



Roman toleration, considers this edict 
by no means more favourable to the 
Christians than that of Trajan. It 
evidently offered them protection under 
a new and peculiar ezigeocj. 



108 



HADHIAM ICKORANT OF CHBISTIANITY. 



wisdom of Hadrian. But, notwithstanding bis active 
and inquisitive mind, and the ability of hia general 
Hudrtan In- policv, few pei"son8 were, perhaps, less qualified 
undemund- to judge of the real nature of the new religion, 
"W- or to comprehend the tenacious hold which it 

would obtain upon the mind of man. His character 
wanted depth and seriotiBness to penetrate or to under- 
stand the workings of a high, profound, and settled 
religious enthusiasm.' The graceful verses which he 
addressed to his departing spirit '' contrast with the 
solemn earnestness ivith which the Christians wei'u 
J mankind to consider the mysteries of another 
But. on the whole, the long and peaceful reign of 
Hadrian allowed free scope to the progress of Chris- 
tianity ; the increasinfT wealth and prosperity of the 
empire probably raised in tbe social scale that class 



1 



the religioiii anaietj in h'gyfU as it 
eiialed, or, mther, US It appeared to 
the inqurhitivs Emperor. '^ 1 am now. 
Jay dear Serrianui, become fully ac- 
quaintrd with that Egypt which yon 
pralH 10 highly. 1 have found Iha 
p»ple Tain, fickle, Hnd biiiftjng with 
evei'J' breach of papular rumour. 
Those who worship Sernpi^ are Chria- 
linns[ and those who call themselTa 
Oimtiaa biahopi are woi-ahippen of 
Serspis. Then ii do jiil<^t of a Jew- 
ish Bjnagt^ue, no SamiirilHH, LO Qiris- 
tim bisliDp, nho is not an astrologer, 
em ialerpiTter of prodigies, and an 
nnointer. The Patriarrh himadf, 
be comts to ERvpt, is onmpelloit by 
Hie party to worship Serapia, by thfl 

rtber, Christ They have hut 

ciDe God: him, Qiiistians, Jews, and 



Gentiles, worship aliliB." This latter 
cliiLse Casaabon understood scrlouily. 
It is evidently malicioni satire. The 
common God is Gain. The tey to 
the former carious statement is pro- 
bahly that the tone of the higher, the 



fashionable, so 



n Alec 







sffevt, e 

philosophic Iheoiy, that all these reli- 
gions differed only in foi-m. but were 
essentially the same; thnt all adored 
one Deity, all one Logos or Demlnrge, 

the same arts to impnsB upon th» 
Tulgnr, and nil were fqually dmpicable 
to Iha nal philosopher. Dr. Burton, 
in his History of the Church, sng- 
ge^tcd. with mudi ingennity, that tbt 
Snmarilana mav hBTe i*en the Gnostic 
tbllowers of Simon Magns. 



Chap. VI. ANTONINUS PIUS. 109 

among whi^h it was chiefly disseminated; while the 
better part of the more opulent would be tempted, at 
least to make themselves acquainted witli a religion the 
moral influence of which was so manifestly favourable to 
the happiness of mankind, and which offered so noble a 
solution of the great problem of human philosophy, the 
immortality of the soul. 

The gentle temper of the first Antoninus would 
maintain that milder system which was adopted Antomims 
by Hadrian from policy or from indifference, ^f^. 
The Emperor, whose parental vigilance scruti- ^^• 
nised the minutest affairs of the most remote pro- 
vince, could not be ignorant, though his own residence 
was fixed in Eome and its immediate neighbourhood, 
of the still expanding progress of Christianity. The 
religion itself acquired every year a more public cha- 
racter. The Apology now assumed the tone of an 
arraignment of the folly and unholiness of the esta- 
blished Polytheism ; nor was this a low and concealed 
murmur within the walls of its own places of assem- 
blage, or propagated in the quiet intercourse of the 
brethren. It no longer affected disguise, or dissem- 
bled its hopes ; it approached the foot of the throne ; 
it stood in the attitude, indeed, of a suppliant, claiming 
the inalienable rights of conscience, but asserting in 
simple confidence its moral superiority, and, in the 
name of an Apology, publicly preaching its own doc- 
trines in the ears of the sovereign and of the world. 
The philosophers were joining its ranks ; it was rapidly 
growing up into a rival power, both of the religions and 
philosophies of the world. Yet, during a reign in which 
auman life assumed a value and a sanctity before un- 
known; in which the hallowed person of a senator 



:io 



EDICTS OP jJiTONIKCS. 



BooKlL 



nas not once violated, even by the stem hand of jus- 
tice;" imderan Emperor who professed and practi 
the mBxim of Scipio, that he had rather save the life of 
a single citizen than cause the death of a thousand ene- 
mies ; ' who considered the suhjeets of the Empire m one 
family, of which himself was the parent,' even religious 
zeal would be rebuked and overawed ; and the pi-ovincial 
governments, which too oft«n reflected the fierce passions 
and violent barbarities of the throne, would now, in tnm, 
image back the calm and placid serenity of the imperial 
tribunal. Edicts are said to have been issued to some of 
the Grecian cities — Larissa, Thessalonica, and Athens — 
and to the Greeks in general, to refrain from any un- 
precedented severities agaiust the Christians. Another 
rescript,'' addressed to the cities of Asia Minor, speaks 
language too distinctly Christian even tor the anticipated 
Christianity of diaposition evinced by Antoninus. It 
calls upon the Pagans to avert the anger of Heaven, 
which was displayed in earthquakes and other public 
calamities, by imitating the piety, rather than denouncing 
the atheism, of the Christians. The pleasing viaion 



• Jul. C«pit. Antm. Hui, Aug. 


as spurious. The older writers di» 


Script, p. 138. 


pnt«i <o which of the Anunini it be- 


' Ibii. p. 140. 


long. Lardner STgues, from the 


■ The leiga of Antgdinns the First 


Apologies of Justin Martjr, that the 


kilmostabbiDk in history. Thebrwk 


Cliristians were pemecuted " even to 


of Dion CassiuB which rontaioed his 


dailh" during this reign. The Inletw 


reign was lott, eicepl a sninll part. 


ence is inconclusive: their wen ab- 


whenXlphilinwint.^. XiphilmMWrta 


nuiiDIU to the l™, Md might enden- 


Oat ADtonmD. tvoured the Chris- 


TDur to gain the law on their aide. 


tiuis. 


though it may not hays been carried 


"■ Thf rMCi'ipl of Auloninui!, in 


into ejeeolion. The general voice of 


Enstbiiu, to which XIphiliD aJluda 





I 



I 




Chap. VL HIS CHARACTER. Ill 

must, it is to be feared, be abandoned, which would 
represent the best of the Pagan Emperors bearing his 
public testimony in favour of the calumniated Chris- 
tians ; the man who, from whatever cause, deservedly 
bore the name of the Pious among the adherents of 
his own religion, the most wisely tolerant to tlio feitli 
of the Gospel, 



112 lUBCnS AXTBEUUS. Book L 



CHAPTEE VIL 

Christianity and Marcus Aurelios the Philosopher. 

The virtue of Marcus Aurelius the Philosopher was of 
a more lofty and vigorous character than that of his 
gentle predecessor. The Second Antoninus might seem 
the last effort of Paganism, or rather of Gentile philo- 
sophy, to raise a worthy opponent to the triumphant 
career of Christianity. A blameless disciple in the 
severest school of philosophic morality, the austerity of 
Marcus rivalled that of the Christians in its contempt of 
the follies and diversions of life ; yet his native kindli- 
ness of disposition was not hardened and embittered by 
the severity or the pride of his philosophy.* With 
Aurelius, nevertheless, Christianity found not only a 
fair and high-minded competitor for the command of 
the human mind ; not only a rival in the exaltation of 
the soul of man to higher views and more dignified 
motives, but a violent and intolerant persecutor. During 
his reign, the martyrologies become more authentic and 
credible ; the distinct voice of Christian history arraigns 
the Philosopher, not indeed as the author of a general 
and systematic plan for the extirpation of Christianity, 
but as withdrawing even the ambiguous protection of 
the former Emperors, and giving free scope to the 
excited passions, the wounded pride, and the jealous 



■ Verecnndas sine ignavift, sine tristiti& gravis. Jul. Capit. Aug. Hist 

p. leo. 



■ asAP. VII. AITKBED POSITION OP CBElSTXANIXr. 113 

interests of its enemies ; neither discountenancing the 
stern determination of the haughty governor to break 
the contumacious spirit of resistance to his authority, 
nor the outburst of popular fury, wliich sought to appease 
the offended gods by the sacrifice of these despisera of 
their Deities. 

Three important causes concurred in bringing about 
this dangerous crisis in the destiny of Chris- Thrremqsea 
tianity at this particular period: — 1. The iiiyofM. 
change in the relative position of Christianity stagovmi- 
to tlie religion of the Empire ; 2, The circum- cutuHaoit)- 
stances of the times ; 3. The character of the Emperor. 
/ I. Sixty years of almost uninterrupted peace, since the 
V beginning of the second century, bad opened a 
' wide field for the free development of Chris- poaiiionof 

i- ■. T. l_ J J ■ i . p ^1 Chrtilionilj 

tiamty. it bad spread mto every quarter ot the m teganj lo 
Romau dominionB, The "Western provinces, 
Gaul and Africa, rivalled the East in the number, if not iu 
the opulence, of their Christian congregations. In almost 
every city had gradually arisen a separate community, 
aeeeding from the ordinary habits and usages of life, at 
least from the public religions ceremonial ; governed by 
its own laws; acting upon a common principle; and 
bound together in a kind of latent federal union through- 
out the empire. A close and intimate correspondence 
connected this new moral republic. An impulae, an 
opinion, a feeling, which originated in Egypt or Syria, 
was propagated with electric rapidity to the remotest 
frontier of the West, Irenseus, the Bishop of Lyons in 
Gaul, whose purer Greek had been in danger of corrup- 
I tion from his intercourse with the barbarous Celtic 
I tribes, enters into a controversy with the speculative 
I teachers of Antioch, Edessa, or Alexandria ; while Ter- 
(tullian in his rude African Latin denounces or advocates 
VOL. II. I 



114 SPEEAD OF CnnrSTlAKITY. BooKll. 

opiuions which sprang up in Pontua or in Phrygia, A 
tiew kind of literature had arisen, prop^ated with the 
utmost zeal of proaelj'tism, amoug a numerous class of 
readers, who began to close their ears against the pro- 
fane fables and the unsatisfactory philosophical systems 
of Paganism. While the Emperor himself conde- 
scended, in Greek of no despicable purity and elegance 
for the age, to explain the lofty tenets of the Porch, and 
to commend its noble morality to his subjects, the 
minds of a large portion of the world were preoccupied 
by writers who, in language often impregnated with 
foreign aud SjTian barbarisms, enforced still higher 
morals, resting upon religious tenets altogether new and 
incomprehensible excepting to the initiate. Their 
sacred books were of still higher authority ; commanded 
the homage, and required the diligent and respectful 
study, of all the disciples of the new faith. Nor was 
this empire within the empire, this universally dissemi- 
nated sect— which had its own religious rites, its own 
laws, to which it appealed rather than to the statutes of 
the empire ; its own judges (for the Christians, wherever 
they were able, submitted their disputes to their bishop 
and his associate presbyters), its own financial regula- 
lions, whether for the maintenance of public worship, or 
for charitable purposes; its own religious superiors, who 
exercised a very different control from that of the pon- 
tiffs or sacerdotal colleges of Piiganisin ; ita own usages 
and conduct ; in some respects its own language — con- 
fined to one class, or to one description of Roman 
subjects. Christians were to be found iu the court, in 
the camp, in the commercial market; they discharged 
all the duties, and did not decline any of the offices, of 
society. They did not altogether shun the forum, 
or abandon all interest in the civil administration ; they 



J 



CH4P. VII, TEBTULLIAirS PLEA FOE lOLEKATIOS. 116 

Tiad their mercantile transactions, in common with the 
rest of that class. One of their apologists indignantly 
repels the charge of their being useless to society : " We 
are no Indian Brahmins, or devotees, living naked in 
the woods, selt-banished irom civilised life. We grate- 
fully accept, we repudiate no gift of God the Creator ; 
we are only temperate in their use. We avoid not 
your forum, your markets, yonr baths, your shops, your 
forges, your inns, your fairs. We are one people with 
you in all worldly commerce. We serve with you as 
sailors, as soldiers ; we are husbandmen and merchants 
like you. We practise the same arts ; we contribute to 
all public works for your use."" Among their most re- 
markable distinctions, no doubt, was their admission of 
slaves to an equality in religious privileges. Tet there 
was no attempt to disorganise or correct the existing 
relations of society. Though the treatment of riaves in 
Christian families could not but be softened and huma- 
nised, as well by the evangelic temper as by this 
acknowledged equality in the hopes of another life, yet 
Christianity left the emancipation of mankind from 
these deeply-rooted distinctions between the i'ree and 
servile races to times which might be ripe for so great 
and important a change. 

This secession of one part of society from its accus- 



» I »iW Tenulliaa's L 
Iruetooai in c^tils dici 
pocto homlnra loblacun 
Q^usdem victllst habilQji, 

enim BnubmiuiB^, aut Ind 
nowplilstie BuniD*, Ejlricolie et uules 
tILv. Heminimut gniljiuii HM di- 
bert Deo domiuo ciwitoH, nullum 



t perpeiam uUunur. IiaquB n 

e tbro, nou line macrllo, non li 

bqlncia, tabemiB, ofliciuirt, stabuJifl. nu 



H« CONNEXION OF CHHISTIANITT BoMt H. 

tomed religious intercouree with the rest, if in nothing 
but religious intercouree, independent of the nttmhers 
whose feelings and interests were implicated in the 
support of the national religion in all its pomp and 
authority, would necessarily produce estrangement, 
jealousy, animosity. 

As Christianity became more powerful, a vagoe appre- 
uonnEiion of heuBion began to spread abroad among the 
"Uhiheiiii Roman people that the fall of their old reli- 
Empire. gion might, to a certain degree, involve that 
of their civil dominion; and this apprehension, it cannot 
be denied, was justified, deepened, and confirmed, by 
the tone of some of the Christian writings, no doubt by 
the language of some Christian teachers. Idolatry was 
not merely an individual, hut a national, sin, which 
would be visited by temporal as well as spiritual retri- 
bution, The anxiety of oae at least, and that certainly 
not the most discreet of the Christian apologists, to dis- 
claim all hostility towards the temporal dignity of the 
Empire, implies that the Christians were obnoxious 
to this charg;e. The Christiana are calumniated, writes 
Tertullian to Scapula," at a somewhat later period 
(under Severus), as guilty of treasonable disloyalty to 
the Emperor. As the occasion required, he exculpates 
them from any leaning to Niger, Albinus, or Cassius, 
the competitors of Severua, and then proceeds to make 
this solemn protestation of loyalty : " The Christian ia 
the enemy of no man, assuredly not of the Emperor. 



msj«Etal«iii impei'i 
I nuaiusm Alhi 
c KigriMii, rel Cssmuii, Id 
it Christiani. 




[ 



I 



Chap. Vll. WITH THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE. 



in 



I 



The sovereign he knows to be ordained by God ; of 
necessity, therefore, he loves, reveres, and honours liim, 
and prays for his safety, with that of the whole Roman 
Empire, that it may endure — and endure it will — as lou^ 
as the world itselt"'* But otiier Christian do- Taosotaum^ 
curaents, or at least documents eagerly dissemi- ^'|2^„n. 
nated by the Christians, speak a very different uiS>ppre^' 
language.' By many modem interpreters, the ''™"™- 
Apoealj-pse itself is supposed to refer, not to the fall of 
a predicted spiritual Rome, but of the dominant Pagan 
Rome, the visible Babylon of idolatry, and pride, and 
cruelty. According to this view, it is a grand dramatic 
vaticination of the triumph of Christianity over Heathen- 
ism in its secular as well as its spiritual power. Be 
tills as it may, in later wi-itings, the threatening and 
maledictory tone of the Apocalypse is manifestly bor- 
rowed, aiid directed against the total abolition of 
Paganism, in its civil as well as religious supremacy. 
Many of these forged prophetic writings belong to the 
reign of the Antonines, and could not emanate from any 
quarter but that of the more injudicious and fanatical 
Christians. The second (Apocryphal) book of Esdras is 
of this character, the work of a Judaising Christian ; ' it 
refers distinctly (o the reign of the twelve Ctesars,'' anil 
obscurely intimates, in many parts, the approaching dis- 
solution of the existing order of things. The doctrine of 



* Quoiuque iscuium stnlrit. 


' The general character of the 


• I hava been much iodebted, in 


worit, the i.Blionality of Ihe perpetuiil 


thii puaigs, to the eiwUent work of 


nllueiona to the histovj and tbrtni.i^M 


Tuchimtr, 'Der Full dfa Heiden- 


of the race of lemel, betray tie Jew ; 


thums,' I WDik writlea with so much 


the parages oh. ii. 42. 48; r. 5; 


leanilDg, undoiii', nnj ChHstinn Icm- 


Tii. 26, 29, are avowed ChristUiillji 


pei'. ss to Ficite gi'eat regiM tbnt it 


On thlB book rend Ewald. 


mat hCl Incomplete at iU author's 


■ C. tii. 14. Corapsre Bamnco 


toU>. 


Hist. de. Juifa, L yii. e. 2. 



lift THE SIBYLLINE BOOKS. Book IL 

the Minenniam, whicli was as yet far from exploded or 
fallen into disregard, mingled with all these prophetic 
anticipations of future change in the destinies of man- 
kind.'' The visible thi'one of Christ, according to these 
uTitinga, was to be erected on the ruins of all eai-tldy 
empires : the nature of Ilis kingdom wonld, of course, he 
imintelligible to the Heathen: and all that he would 
comprehend would be a vague notion that the empire of 
the world was to be transferred from Eome, and that this 
extinction of the majesty of the Empire was, in Bome in- 
comprehensible mauner, connected with the triumph of 
the new faith. His terror, liia indignation, and his con- 
tempt, would lead to fierce and implacable animosity. 
Even in Tertullian's Apology, the ambiguous word 
" sseculum " might mean no more than a brief and 
limited period, which was yet to elapse before the final 
consummation. 

But the Sibylline verses, which clearly belong to this 
TbesibyoiM period, express, in the most remarkable manner, 
'*'*' this spirit of exulting menace at the expected 

simultaneous fall of Koman idolatry and of Roman em- 
pira The oi'igin of the whole of the Sibylline oracles 
now extant is not distinctly apparent, either from the 
style, the manner of composition, or the subject of their 
predictions.' It is manifest that they were largely inter- 
polated by tlie Cliristians, to a late period, and some of 
the books can be assigned to no other time but the 
present" Bluch, nu doubt, was of an older date. It is 

■■ Tlie™ ore nji|pjiiEnt aUuaione U> ^ books there blitUe prophecj; it i> in 

the MilJeBDiiun in Hiu SibyhlDi.' Venn, general the Moaic hilvrj, id GnA 

pirtu.'ulai'lj at the dose of the eighth ' heuuneters. If liierc Hre nn; fnu;- 

book. I iniDtt of Heathen venes, the; ore in 

' The first book, to pig* 176, nmy , Ihe third book, 

be Jewish ; it then Jiqcoiopb Chriitinn, ' Ad hoium imperalornm (Anli>- 

■■ well Ha the H^ixmil. But iu th^^! . Diui Fii cum liberie sui> U. Auvla 



1 



Chap. VII. 



THEIK PROBAjBLE ORIGIN. 



119 



scarcely credible that the Fathers of this time would 
quote contemporary forgeries as ancient prophecies. 
The Jews of Alexandria, who had acquired some taste 
for Grecian poetry, and displayed some talent for the 
translation of their sacred books into the Homeric lan- 
guage and metre,™ had, no doubt, set the exeimple of 
versifying their own prophecies, and of ascribing them 
to the Sibyls, whose names were universally venerated, 
as revealing to mankind the secrets of futurity. They 
may have begun by comparing their own prophets 
with these ancient seers, and spoken of the predictions 
of Isaiah or Ezekiel as their Sibylline verses, which may 
have been another word for prophetic or oracular. 

Almost every region of Heathenism boasts its SibyL" 
Poetic predictions, ascribed to these inspired women, 
were either published or religiously preserved in the 
sacred archives of cities. Nowhere were they held in 
such awful reverence as in Kome. The opening of the 



et Lucio Vero) tempora videntur 
Sibyllarum vaticinia tantum extendi ; 
id quod etiam e lib. v. videre licet. 
Note of the editor, Opsopaus, p. 688. 
•" Compare Valckenaer's learned 
treatise De Aristobulo Judseo. The 
fragments of Ezekiel Tragaedus, and 
many passages, which are evident ver- 
sions of the Jewish Scriptures, in the 
works of the Fathers, particularly of 
Eusebius, may be traced to this school. 
It is by no means impossible that the 
PoUio of Virgil may owe many of its 
beauties to those Alexandrian vemfiers 
of the Bebrew prophets. Vu^il, who 
wrought up indiscriminately into his 
refined gold all the ruder ore which 
he found in the older poets, may have 
Men aad admired some of these verses. 



He may have condescended, as he 
thought, to borrow the images of 
these religious books of the barba- 
rians, as a modern might the images 
of the Vedas or of the Koran. 

■ See on the different Sibyls and 
the origin of the different poems the 
dissertation the (Excursus 1. and vi.) 
of the new editor of the Sibylline 
verees, M. Alexandre, t. ii. (Paris, 
1856). On the Roman Sibylline 
books, Excursus iii. I do not pledge 
myself to all M. Alexandre's historical 
criticism ; but I wish to bear my 
humble testimony to the superiority 
of this edition over all previous 
ones. The editor has availed himself 
of the valuable suggestions of Bleek. 



120 THE SIBYLLINE BOOKS. Book n. 

SibyUine books was an event of rare occarrenee, and 
Liiily at seasons of fearful disaster or peril. Nothing 
would be more tempting to tbe sterner or more ardent 
Christian, than to enlist, as it were, on his side, these 
authorised Pagan interpreters of futurity ; to extort, it 
might seem, from their own oracles, tliis confession of 
their approaehing dissolution. Nothing, on the other 
hand, would more strongly excite the mingled feehngs of 
apprehension and animosity in the minds of the Pagans, 
than this profanation, as it would appeal', whether they 
disbeheved or credited them, of the sacred treasures of 
praphecy. It was Paganism made to utter, in its most 
hallowed language, and by its own inspired proplieta, its 
own condemnation ; to announce its own immediate 
downfall, and the triumph of its yet obscure enemy over 
both its religioiis and temporal dominion. 

Tbe fifth and eighth books of the Sibylline oracles 
are ihoau which most distinctly betray the sentimenta 
and language of the Christians of this period." In the 
spirit of the Jewish prophets, they denounce the folly of 
worshipping gods of wood and stone, of ivory, of gold, 
and silver ; of offering incense and sacriliue to dumb and 
deaf deities. The gods of Egypt, and those of Greece 
— Hercules, Jove, and Mercury— are cut off. The 
ivhole sentiment is in the contemptuous and aggressive 
tone of the later, rather than the more temperate and 
defensive argument of the earlier, apologists for Chria- 
tiiiiiity. But the Sibyis are made, not merely to de- 
nounce the fall of Heathenism, bnt the ruin of Heathen 
states and the desolation of Heathen cities. Many 
sages relate to Egypt, and seem to point out Alexandria, 
with Asia Minor, the cities of which, particularly Lao- 



1 




Ci.*P. Vil. THEIE CONTENTS. 121 

dicea, are freqnently noticed, as the chief staple of 
these poetico-prophetic forgeries.^ The foliowing pas- 
sage might flltfiost seem to have been ivritten after the 
destruction of the Serapeum by TheodoaioB : '' " Isis, 
tiirice hapless goddess, thou shalt remain alone on the 
shores of the Nile, a solitary Msanad by the sands of 
Acheron. No longer shall thy memory endure upon 
the earth. And thou, Serapis, that restest upon thy 
stones, mncli must thou suffer ; thou shalt be the 
mightiest niiii in thrice hapless Egypt ; and those, who 
worshipped thee for a god, shall know thee to be 
nothing. And one of the linen-clothed priests shall 
say, Come, let va build the beautiful temple of the true 
God ; let us change the awful law of our ancestors, who, 
in their ignorance, made thehr porapa and festivals to 
gods of stone and clay ; let us turn our hearts, hymning 
the Everlasting God, the Eternal Father, the Lord of 
all, the True, the King, the Creator and Preserver of 
our souls, tiie Great, the Eternal God," 

BouXSj 'HpaKf-mis tf AuSs -rt Kol 'Ep/indo.~P. 558. 
Tlw first of ihese lines is rautilHtod. 

MoiJm), /iBii-it Ktiwtoi, M itafiiSoi! 'AX'pivros, 
Kol«.Vi iTDu fu'ui 7< f.(f(T nari talaf fiiraottv. 
Kol (ri- Zipari, KlSois ^iriUfff.H'E, ffoAXi iJjrri\a'.it. 

KbI tI! ifi' rat Upiay \inriairios iyiip' 

&evrt rit tti irpvyAvtov Zfivhv v&pjiv i\Ai£{v^tr, 
TeS x^P'" 9 aI^'vo" I"^ oaTpaKivouii tiaUri 

AutAp rhv yeivr^p^ rir crfBim* ytya&raj 

fifj(ifTp^^ov ytvfTTipaj Qriv fiiyav, tiXit lArrcL. 

Lib. V. p. S'ii, «<lit. (>^U. .^milelod. MiZ. 



122 



SIBYLLINE PROPHECY AS TO HADHIAW. Book II 



A bolder prophet, without doubt writing precisely at 
this perilous crisis, dares, in the name of a Sibyl, to 
[Connect together the approaching fall of Kome and the 
gods of Eome. " haughty Rome, the just chastise- 
ment of Heaven shall come down upon thee from on 
liigh; thou ahalt stoop thy neck, and be levelled witli 
the earth; and fire shall consume thee, razed to thy 
very foundations ; and thy wealth shall perish ; wolves 
and foxes shall dwell among thy ruins, and thou shalt 
be desolate as if thou hadst never been. Where then 
will be thy Palladium ? Which of thy gods of gold, or 
of stoue, or of brass, eliall save thee ? Where then the 
decrees of thy senate? \\Tiere the race of Rhea, of 
Saturn, or of Jove ; all the lifeless deities thou hast 
worshipped, or the shades of the deified dead ? When 
thrice five gorgeous Ctesars [the twelve Cfesare usually 
80 called, with Xerva, Ti-ajan, Hadrian], who liave en- 
slaved the world from east to west, shall be, one will 
arise silver-helmed, with a name like the neighbouring 
sea [Hadrian and the Hadriatic Sea]." ■■ The poet de- 
flcribes the busy and lavish character of Hadrian, his 






' 'Hfci col tot' inuBi/ I-m, i}\>aixti- 

lU{(Sa^ur0j)tr7j, kbI np at SAiip inx 

Kui tra eiii,i9\a \iiioi, xal SA^atts olnitiroii' 
Kol tAt' ttrjt irapifnttAOi Shus, as fiii •ytyopvi 
aoS rirc noAAdSioi' .- iroTut at Bths imo-iiiTci 
Xpuaoit, 4 tdSit^s, )) xi>^ifo! ' ^1 'r^* ^"v < 
Ajy^tsTO eiryKXiiTBa ; wov, 'PflyJI, ^i Kpivot 



OteAft Vn. PROPHECY RELATING TO NERO. 123 

curiosity in prying into all religious mysteries, and his 
deification of Antinous.^ 

" After him shall reign three, whoze times shall be the 
last} * * * Then from the uttermost parts of the earth, 
whither he fled, shall the matricide [Nero] return," 



There is another allusion to Hadrian, 
lib. V. p. 552, much more laudatory : 
"^ffrcu KoX TravdpioTos &H)p, Koi 



The ruin of Rome, and the restora- 
tion of Europe to the East, are like- 
wise alluded to in the following pas- 
sages : lib. iii. p. 404-i08 ; v. 573- 
576 J viii. 694^ 712, 718. 

* K6(r(iov ivoirrticoif fuap^ voti, dapa vopi^cop 

« « « « 

Kal fiayiKwy iStJrwi' fivtrTfipia vdyra fieOf^ti, 
UouJik Behu BtiKV^crei, &ircuna ffefidafuvra XtJcrei. — P. 688. 
(Compare the ziith book, published by A. Mai, where the reading is Ihitf 
iro8i, line 167.) 

* Thv fitrit rpeis &p^ov(ri, vcof^ararov ^fiap tlx^^^^^ — 

One of these three is to be an old man, to heap up vast treasure^ in order 
to surrender them to the Eastern destioyei-, Nero — 

fy Srav y* &irav€\6y 
*E« veplrcov yalris t (pxryas firirpoKTSvos i\0(i)V, 
Kol t<Jt€ irey^^crets, v\arv irSpipvpov fiyefioirfiuy 
*«s iK^vffa/JLeyri, Koi vfvOifxov flfia (t>€pov(ra, 

* « * * 

K<d yh.p &€T0(p6pa)y Xtyedovtav 5<J|a irecretTat. 
Ilov rSre ffoi rh Kpdros : icoia yri crvyi^axos tffrcuy 
Aov\<ad€7a'a reais ixaraio<ppoa'vvri(riy kBifffiws ; 
Tidor\s yh.p yalris dvrirSov rSre o'luyxvo'ts Itrrax, 
Abrbs vavroKpdroip irhv i\6ioy fiiifiaffi Kpivy 
Z^vTcoy Kou ycK^Kav ^vx^s^ koIX KSfffioy Anoana, 

* ♦ * « 

'Ek tot€ (Toi fipxryfids, Koi (rKopirifffids, Kcd &\o)<ri5, 
nratris Bray IA.0J7 Tr6\€0DVy koI X'^^i""''"* yot^VS. 

Lib. viii. 688. 



u The strange notion of the flight 
of Nero beyond the Euphrates, from 
whence he was to return as Antichrist, 
is almost the burthen of the Sibylline 
verses. Compare lib. iv. p. 520-525 ; 
V. 573, where there is an allusion to 
his theatrical tastce, 619-714. The 



best commentary is that of St. Au- 
gustine on the Thessalonians : ** Et 
tunc revelabitur ille iniquus. Ego 
prorsus quid dizerit me fateor igno- 
rare. Suspiciones tamen hominum, 
quas vel audire vel l^re de h&c re 
potui, non tacebo. Quidam putant 



124 SIBYLLINE PROrHECIES. 

And now, king of Rome, shalt thou mourn, disrobed 
of tlie purple laliolave of thy rulers, and clad in sack- 
cloth. The glory of thy eagle-bearing legions shall 
perish. "Where shall be thy might? What land, which 
thou hast enslaved by thy vain laurels, shall be thine 
ally ? For there shall be confusion on all mortals over 
the whole earth, when the Almighty Euler comes, and, 
seated upon his throne, judges the souls of the quick and 
of the dead, and of the whole worli There shall be 
wailing and scattering abroad, and ruin, when the fall 
of the cities shall come, and the abyss of earth shall 
open." 

In another passage, the desolation of Italy, the return 
of Nero, the general massacre of kings, are portrayed 
in fearful terms. The licentiousness of Rome is detailed 
in the blackest colours. " Sit silent in thy sorrow, 
guilty and liLxuriouB city; the vestal >irgm8 shall no 
longer watch the sacred fire; thy house is desolate.'" 
Christianity is tben represented under the imago of 
a pure and heaven-descending temple, embracing the 
whole human race. 



hoc de inperio dictum fnase llamano ; 
Bt proptorea Pflulum Aponlolmn don 
id apertfe scribere Toluisse, ne calmn- 
ninm fidelicet incairen-t quod Romano 
imperio mnlfe optaveril, cum Bpeni- 
retiir leUmum : ut hoc quod diiil, 
■Jam enim mrrtfriam iniquitntia 
opEnnur," Neronem Tolnerit intelligi, 
cujus jam facU velut Aatlcfariiti ride- 
bantur ; ande nonnulli ipsnm ivanr- 



snm putunt. >rd subtractDm poliiis, ut 
putAretur crccUua; et vivum occultan 
\a Tigora ipsiu 
onin credm*ir 



tempoiT m-eletur, 
r^num." Aixording lo the Sit^-li, 
Nero was to make an alliance wiUl 
the kings of the Medes and Perfiiaufl ; 
return at lie hrad of a mighty "tmy; 
Bccarapli;ih hii favoTirile scheme oF 
d^ng Uirough the Isthmus ol Co- 
rinth, and then mnquer Rome. For 
the maimer in which Neandar traces 
the gam of this notion in the Apoca- 
Ifpso. ue Pflanznng, tier Chr Kircb^ 



1 

I 
I 



337. Nen 



CHANGE IN ASPECT OF THE TIMES. 



r 

H Whether or not these prophecies merely embodied, for 
■ the private ediiication, tlie sentiments of the Christitois, 
H they are manifest iodicationa of these sentiments ; and 
H they would scarcely be concealed with so much prudence 
^ and discretion as not to transpire among adversaries, who 
now began to watch them with jealous vigilance : if they 
were boldly published, for the purpose of converting the 
'Heathen, they would be still more obnoxious to the 
; general indignation and hatred. However the more 
moderate and rational, probably the greater number, of 
the Christians might deprecate these dangerous and in- 
judicious effusions of zoid, the consequences would 
involve all abke in the indiBcriminating animosity 
which tliey would provoke ; and, whether or not these 
predictions were contained in the Sibylline poems, quoted 
by all the early writera, by Justin Martyr, by Clement, 
and by Origen, the attempt to an'ay the authority of the 
Sibyls against that religion and that empire, of which 
they were before considered almost the tutelary guar- 
dians, would goad the rankling aversion into violent 
I resentment. 
The general superiority assumed in any way by 
Christianity, directly it came into collision with the 
opposite party, would of itself be fatal to the peace 
which it had acquired i'u its earlier obscurity. Of all 
pretensions, man is most jealous of the claim to moral 
Bnperiority. 

II. The darkening aspect of the times wrought up 
this gi-owing alienation and hatred to open and h ciango in 
, furious hostility. In the reign of M. Aureliue, JH^^rtoriiiB 
we approach the verge of tliat narrow oasis of ""^ 
peace which intervenes between the tinal conquests of 
Borne and the recoil of repressed and threatening bar- 
barism upon the civilisation of the world. The public 



126 TEEROR OF THE ROMAN WORLD. Book U. 

mind began to be agitated with gloomy rumourB from 
the fi-ontier, while calamities, though local, yet spread 
over wide dJBtricts, shook the whole Koman people with 
apprehension. Foreign and civil ware, inimdations, 
earthquakes, pestilences, which I shall presently assign 
to their proper dates, awoke the affrighted empire from 
ita slumber of tranquillity and peace/ 

The Emperor Marcus reposed not, like his prede- 
cessor, in his Lanuvian villa, amid the peaceful pursuits 
of agi-iculture, or with the great jurisconsults of the 
time, meditating on a general system of legislation. 
The days of the Second Nnma were gone by, and the 
Philosopher mtiet leave his speculative school and hia 
8toic friends to place himself at the head of the legions. 
New levies invade the repose of peaceful families ; even 
the public amusements are encroached upon ; the gla- 
Tmwflf tha didtors are enrolled to serve in the army.* It 
Bonuinworiii. ^gg j^j. ^jjjg Unexpected crisis of calamity and 
terror, tliat Superstition, wiich had slept in careless and 
Epicurean foT^tfulness of ita gods, suddenly awoke, and 
when it fled for succour to the altar of the tutelar deity, 
found the temple deserted and the shrine neglected. 
One portion of society stood aloof in sullen disregard or 
avowed contempt of rites so imperiously demanded by 
the avenging gods. If, in the time of public distress, 
true religion inspires serene resignation to the Divine 
will, and receives tlie awful admonition to more strenuous 
and rigid virtue, Superstition shudders at the manifest 
anger of the gods, yet looks not within to correct the 
offensive guilt, but abroad, to discover some gift or 

' TilkmoDt, Ulit. ita Emp. ii. I popnlum nublatis volaptatibis Tellel 
593, cogere ad phUwaphuni. JuL Cap 

. Fuit tnim populo hie wntio, cum p. 204. 
lustvlisiet ad Mltan gladiatora quod I 



1 



C»AP. Vn. AKIMOSTTT AGAINST THE CHRISTIANS. 12V 



sacrifice which may appease the Divine wrath, and bribe 
back the alienated favour of Heaven. Karely does it 
discover any oflFering sufficiently costly, except human 
life.* The Christians were the public and avowed ene- 
mies of the gods ; they were the self-designated victims, 
whose ungrateM atheism had provoked, whose blood 
might avert, their manifest indignation. The public 
religious ceremonies, the sacrifices, the games, the 
theatres, aflbrded constant opportunities of inflaming 
and giving vent to the paroxysms of popular fury, with 
which it disburthened itself of its awful apprehensions. 
The cry of " The Christians to the lions ! " was now no 
longer the wanton clamour of individual or party malice ; 
it was not murmured by the interested, and eagerly re- 
echoed by the blood-thirsty, who rejoiced in the exhibition 
of unusual victims ; it weis the deep and general voice of 
fanatic terror, solemnly demanding the propitiation of 
the wrathful gods, by the sacrifice of these impious apos- 
tates from their worship.^ The Christians were the 
authors of all the calamities which were brooding over 
the world, and in vain their earnest apologists appealed 
to the prosperity of the empire since the appearance of 
Christ, in the reign of Augustus, and showed that the 
great enemies of Christianity, the Emperors Nero and 
Domitian, were likewise the scourges of mankind.® 



* Compare on similar events, pa- 
roxjBiiM of popular religious zeal 
arising ont of pablic calamities, Har- 
tong, Religion des Romer, i. 234. 

^ The miraele of the thundering 
legioQ (see postea), after having suf- 
fered deadly wounds from former 
asMulants, was finally transfixed by 
the critical spear of Moyle (Works, 
foL iL). Is it improbable that it was 



invented or wrought up, from a casual 
occurrence, into its present form, as a 
kind of counterpoise to the reiterated 
charge which was advanced against the 
Christians, of having caused, by their 
impiety, all the calamities inflicted by 
the barbarians on the Empire ? 

« Melito apud Kouth, Reliq. Sacr. 
i. 111. Compare Tertulliau, Ap* 
loget. V. 



L28 CHAEACTES OF THE EMPEEOB. Book H. ^M 

III, Was, then, the phQc.sopher Aurelius superior to ^M 
ill. ThsfW tbe vulgar auperstitiou ? In what maimer did ^| 
^'^r. his personal character affect the condition of 
the Christians ? Did he anthorise, by any new edict, a 
general and HyBtematic persecution, or did he only give 
free scope to the vengeance of the awe-atrack people, ^m 
and conut^nance the timid or fanatic concessions of the ^M 
provincial goveniora to the riotous demand of the H 
populace for Giiristian blood? Did he actually repeal or 
suspend, or only neglect to enforce, the milder edicts of 
liis predecessors, which secured to the Christiana a fair 
and public trial before the legal tribunal?*- The acts h 
ascribed to Marcus Aurelius, in the meagre and unsatia- fl 
factory amiala of his reign, are at iasne with the senti- H 
raents expressed in his grave and lofty Meditations. ■ 
He assumes, in his philosophical Incubrations, which he H 
dictated duruig his campaigne upon the Danube, the 1 
tone of profound rehgious sentiment, but proudly dia- H 
claims the influence of superstition upon hia mind. Yet H 
in Home he either shared, or condescended to appear to ^M 
share, all the terrora of the people. The pestilence, ^ 
said to have been introduced from the East by the 
soldiers, on their return from the Partliian campaign, 
had not yet ceased its ravages, when the public mmd 
was thrown into a state of the ntmost depression by tlie M 
news of the Marcomannic war. M. Aurelius, as we ^M 
ghall hereafter see, did not, in his proper person, couu- ^M 


' There is au edict of the Emperor 
Aurelian in the genuine Acts of at. 

and Xeander (i. lOlJ), oo.dd read the 
rnrno of H. Aurelios instead of Aur«- 

opinion, inconclusii-e, and Ihe feet ihat 


Aai-elian ia nnmcd nmnng the perse- ^H 
cnting tUmperoia in the tieotise as- ^H 
criled to Lactantius (De Mort. Perse- ^H 
cutor.), in which his edicts {mipm] ^H 
against the Chriitians are di'itinellj ^H 



Chap. VIL THE EMPEROR'S PRIVATE SENTIMENTS. 129 

tenance, to the utmost, the demands of the popular super- 
stition. For all the vulgar arts of magic, divination, 
and vaticination, the Emperor declares his sovereign 
contempt ; yet on that occasion, besides the public reli- 
gious ceremonies, to which I shall presently allude, he 
is said himself to have tampered with the dealers in the 
secrets of futurity ; to have lent a willing ear to the 
prognostications of the Chaldeans, and to the calcula- 
tions of astrology. If these facts be true, and all this 
werie not done in mere compliance with the Private aenu 
general sentiment, the serene composure oi EmDeror.in 
Marcus himself may at times have darkened sons. 
into terror; his philosophic apathy may not always 
have been exempt from the influence of shuddering 
devotion. In issuing an edict against the Christians, 
Marcus may have supposed that he was consulting the 
public good, by conciliating the alienated favour of the 
gods. But the superiority of the Christians to all the 
terrors of death appears at once to have astonished and 
wounded the Stoic pride of the Emperor. Philosophy, 
which was constantly dwelling on the solemn question 
of the immortality of the soul, could not comprehend 
the eager resolution with which the Christian departed 
from life; and in the bitterness of jealousy sought out 
unworthy motives for the intrepidity which it could not 
emulate. " How great is that soul which is ready, if it 
must depeirt from the body, to be extinguished, to be 
dispersed, or still to subsist ! And this readiness must 
proceed from the individual judgement, not from mere 
obstinacy, like the Christians, but deUberately, solemnly, 
and without tragic display."® The Emperpr did not 



* The Emperor's GreeK is by no sage. lFi\^y vapdra^w is usually 



means clear in this remarkable pas- 



translated as in the text *'iinre oIn 



VOL. II. E 



130 



EDICT OP MARCUS ANTONINUS. 



ehoofie to discern that it was in the one case the doubt, 
in the other the assurance, of the eternal destiny of the 
soul, which constituted the difference. Marcus, no 
doubt, could admire, not merely the dignity with which 
the philosopher might depart on hi a uncertain but 
necessary disembarkation from the voyage of life, and 
the bold and fearless valour with which his own legion- 
aries or their barbarous ant^onists could confront 
death on the field of battle ; but, at the height of hia 
wisdom, he could not comprehend the exalted enthu- 
siasm with which the Christian trusted in the immor- 
tality and blessedness of the departed sonl in the 
presence of God. 

There can be little doubt tliat Marcus Antoninus 
issued an edict by which the Cliristiona were again 
exposed to all the denunciations of common informers, 
whose zeal was now whetted by some slmre, if not by 
the whole, of the confiscated property of delinquents. 
The most distinguished Christians of the East were 
sacrificed to the base passions of the meanest of man- 
kind, by the Emperor, who, with every moral qualifica- 
tion to appreciate the new religion, closed his ears, either 
in the stem apathy of Stoic pliilosophy, or the more 
engrossing terrors of Heathen bigotry. 

It is remarkable how closely the more probable 
records of Christian martyrology harmonise with the 
course of events, during the whole reign of M, Aureliua, 









u BiitJthtiU with tSiK ,- ., 
that it nCm to the mann«' in whlcli 
the Christians arrayed themselves a> 
B body ligRinst the nnthorlt^ nf the 
peiwcotort; nnJ sliuuld reuder the 



dispbij whic 

Stoic ]>ride ' 
dignity Df ai 




ACCESSION OF MARCUS AURELIUS. 



131 



and illustrate and justify my view of the causes and 
motives of their persecution/ 

It wason the 7th March, a.d. 161, that the elder An- 
toninus, in tlie charitable words of a Christian 
apologist, sank in death into the sweetest sleep,* 
and M, Aurelius assumed the reins of empire. He im- 
mediately associated with himself the other adopted 
son of Antoninus, who took the name of L. Verus. 
One treacherous year of peace gave the hope of undis- 
turbed repose, under the beneficent sway which carried 
the m axims of a severe and humane philosophy into the 
administration of public affairs. Mild to all lighter 
delinquencies, but always ready to mitigate the severity 
of the law, the Emperor was only inexorable to those 
more heinous offences which endanger the happiness of 
society. While the Emperor himself superintended the 
eoDise of justice, the senate resumed its ancient honours. 
In the second year of his reign, the horizon 
began to darken. During the reign of the First 
Antoninus, earthquakes which shook down some of the 
Asiatic cities, and fires which ravaged those of tlie West, 
had excited much alarm ; but these calamities assumed 
a more dire and destructive character during the reign 
of AurelioB. Eome itself was first visited with a terrible 



' A modem writer, M. Rip«ult 


torisn write that— "Tout M 


(EM. Philosophiqnede Marc Aurtle), 


le» cultea de lempire ^'eI^v* 


ucribes to thia time the memorable 


parU coDtra les Chiiliena. C 


pusag* of Tertnllian's Apoligy:— 


hue k ™ qu-on appelle leor 








qnelifn gemiiEent tooa lei 


tian«ei»cau«un. Si Tibenixucmdil 


BBtis privily Hi eitmpdoD, 


ill mmia. >i Niliu dob saceodit ia 


tiDctialide»ligiol>." Tillemo 


ttTR, u .»rium rtelit, n terra rnotH, 


des Emp., Marc AurU. 


dfamet » iuas, sUtim Christiimai id 




taoijes." An oiJer. mo™ leflraod tti- 


tonin. 3. 



132 CALAMITIES OF THE EMPIRE. BooKH, 

inundation." The Tilx^r swept away all the cattle in 
the neighbourhood, threw down a great number ol' build- 
ings ; among the rest, the granarioB and magEzinee of 
corn, which were chiefly situated on the banks of the 
river. Thia appalling event was followed by a famine, 
wliich pressed heavily on the poorer population of tlie 
capital. At the same time, disturbances took place in 
Britain. The Catti, a German tribe, ravaged Belgium ; 
and the Parthian war, which commenced under most 
disastrouB circumstances, tiio invasion of Syria, and the 
loss of three legions, demanded the presence of his 
colleague in the empire. Though the event was 
announced to he prosperous, yet intelligelice of doubtful 
and hard-won i-ictories seemed to intimate that the 
Bpell of Roman conquest was beginning to lose its 
power, ' 

After four years, Verus returned, bearing the trophies 
*-D- iss- of victory : but, at the same time, the seeds of 

C«l«mLlies of • ,' -11, 1, 

tii8 Empim. a calamity which outweighed all the barren 
honours which he had won on the shores of the Eu- 
phrates, His army was infected with a pestilence, wliich 
superstition ascribed to the plunder of a temple in Seleu- 
cia or Babylonia. The rapacious soldiers had opened a 
mystic coffer, inscribed with magical signs, from wliich 
issued a pestilential air, which laid waste the whole 
world. Tliis fable is a vivid indication of the state ol 
the public mindJ More rational observation traced the 



k Cpitol. M. An 


Wnin. p. 


IBS. 1 Asi^ wa 


moeh lute 


than the Pa 


' -Sedmdiebia 


Puthioi 


iKlli, pcr- 


thiau w 


ir} appears 


to connect the 


ncintiDDei Christian 


riiio, q 


aidl jan. 


calsmitie 


of Rome 


with the per 


port Neronm. rice 


in A«a 


at Gallia 








pans pnecephi ejus eililanint, tduI- 


i Till 


wn. railed U 


e ■' anha, tsla- 






mnniiti 




There is a 


strange eturj in 




fOrffiiui 


CapiUiliniu of an im 


Poitor who h«- 


Ifar tlw ptrsecuiioD 


InGsul 


if DOT in 


rangiKd 


the popuLin 


Iram the wiW 



•■ -Ohap. TD. 



PESTILENCE AND WAR. 



133 



I 



fatal malady from Etliiopia and Egypt to the Eastem 
anny, which it followed from province to province, 
mouldering away its Btrength as it prowecied, even to 
the remote frontiers of Gaul and the northern shores of 
the Rhine. Italy felt its moat dreadful ravages, and in 
Eome itself thu dead bodies were transported out of the 
city, not on the decent bier, but heaped up in waggons. 
Famine aggravated the miseries, and, perhaps, increased 
the virulence, of the plague." Still the hopes of peace 
began to revive the drooping mind ; and flattering 
medals were struck, which promised the return of golden 
days. On a sudden, the Empire was appalled with the 
intelligence of new wars in all quarters. The Moors 
laid waste the fertde provinces of Spain ; a rebellion of 
ehepherda mthlield the harvests of Egypt from the 
capital. Their defeat only added to the dangerous glory 
of Avidiua Cassiua, who, before long, stood forth as a 
competitor for the Emph-e. A vast confederacy of na- 
tions, from the frontiers of Gaul to the borders of Illyri- 
cam, comprehending some of the best known and most 
formidable of the German tribes, with others whose 
dissonant names were new to the Koman eara, had 
arisen with a simultaneous movement." The armies 
were wasted with the Parthian cam[)aigii8, and the still 
more destructive plague. 

The Marcomannic has been compared with the Second 
Punic War, though, at the time, even in the paroxysm 
of terror, the pride of Eome would probably not have 



a the Campmi Mardns, and \ 

usertfil that if, ia throwing binuelf I 

trom the tree, ha Bhould be tnruai into I 

a stork, fin would &1I rrom h^vcn, > 

eaidofl/uiaorldwasalAandi 

n de calo lapBUruni 



.B he fell, ht 



lis confession of the impoi 



134 



CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOMS. 



indeed,* ^1 

1117 (fof'H 

ill quar'^ 



ennobled an irruption of barbarians, however furmidable^ 
hj- such a comparison. The presence of both the Em**: 
[lerora was imperiously demanded. I^Itircus, indeed,'! 
lingered in Rome, probably to enrol the army (fof' 
which purpose he swept together recruits from all quar' 
fere, and even robbed the arena of its bravest g1adi&- 
tore), certainly to perform the most solemn aiid costly 
religious ceremonies. Every rite was celebrated which 
could propitiate the Divine favour, or allay the popular 
fears. Priests were summoned from all quarters; foreign 
rites performed ; " lustrations and funereal banquets for 
sevfin days purified the infected city. It was, no doubt, 
on this occasion that the unusual number of victims 
])rovoked the sarcastic wit which insinuated that, if the 
Emperor returned victorious, there would be a dearth 
Ghristiiui of oxen." Precisely at this time, the Christian 
A.B. m, martyrologies date the commencement of the 
persecution under Aurelius. In Rome itself, Justin, the 
apologist of Christianity, either in the same or in the 
following year, ratified with his blood the sincerity of 
his belief in the doctrines for which he had abandoned 
the Gentile philosophy. His death is attributed to the 
jealousy of Crescens, a Cynic, whose audience had been 
drawn off by the more attractive tenets of the Christian 
Platonist. Justin was summoned before Busticus, one 
of the philosophic teachers of Aurelius, the prefect of 



■ " I'eri^nnos ritus impleotrit." ] 
Slid) gnmi the unconlestoi lauHug in 

the Aiigiubia history ; yrt the Bingolar i 

Ru4 that St Each n period the Emperar ' 

« foreign ritoi, sa well ' 



ho the Eroperor: '*If y&n 




[ 



PEESKcrrrioN in asia mihoe. 



135 



I 



the eity, and commanded to perform sacrifice. On hia 
refusal, and open avowal of hia ChriBtianity, he was 
scourged, and put to death. It is by no means impro- 
bable that, during this crisia of religions terror, mandates 
should have been issued to the provinces to imitate the 
devotion of the capital, and everywhere to appease the 
offended gods by sacrifice. Such an edict, though not 
designating them by name, would, in its effects, and 
perhaps in intention, expose the Christians to the malice 
of their enemies. Even if the provincial governors were 
left of their own accord to imitate the example of the 
Emperor, their own zeal or loyalty would induce them 
to fall in with the popular current. The lofty hu- 
manity which would be superior at once to supersti- 
tion, to interest, and to the deaire of popularity, and 
which would neglect the opportunity of courting the 
favour of the Emperor and the populace, would be a 
rare and singular virtue upon the tribunal of a provin- 
cial ruler. 

The persecution raged with the greatest violence in 
Asia Minor, It was here that the new edicts PeraMou™ 
were promulgated, so far departing from the niour. 
humane regulations of the former Emperors, that the 
prudent apologists venture to doubt their emanating 
from the imperial authority.^ By these rescripts, the 
delators were again let loose, and were stimulated by 
the gratification of their rapacity out of the forfeited 
goods of the Christian victims of persecution, as well as 
of their revenge. 

The fame of the aged Polycarp, whose death the 
Borrowing Church of Smyrna related in an epistle to 
the Christian community at Philomelium or Philadel- 



136 



PULYCAEP. 



nhia, which is still extant, and bears every mark of 
authentic ity,'^ has obscured that of the other 
victims of Heathen malice or superstition. Of 
these victims, the names of two ouly liave survived ; 
one who manfully endured, the other who timidly 
apostatised in the hour of trial. Germiinicus appeared ; 
was forced to descend info the arena ; he fought gal- 
lantly, until the merciful Proconsul entreated him to 
consider his time of hfe. He then provoked the tardy 
beast, and in an instant obtained bis immortality. The 
impression on the wondering people was tliat of indig- 
nation rather than of pity. The cry wna redoubled, 
"Away with the godless! Let Polycarp be appre- 
hended ! " The second, Quintus, a Phrygian, had 
boastfully excited the rest to throw themselves in the 
way of the persecution. He descended, in his haste, 
iat^ the arena ; the first sight of the wild beasts so 
overcame his hollow courage, that he consented to 
sacrifice. 

Polycarp was the most distinguished Christian of the 
East; he had heard the Apostle St. John; he had long 
presided, "with the most saintly dignity, over the see of 
Smyrna. Polycarp neither ostentatiously exposed him- 
sell', nor declined such measures for aecnrity as might 
be consistent with his character. He consented to 
retire into a neighbouring village, from which, on the 
intelligence of the approach of the officers, he retreated 
to another. His place of concealment being betrayed 
by two slaves, whose confession had been extorted by 
torture, he exclaimed, "The will of God be done;" 
ordered fuod to be prepared for the officers of justice ; 
and requested time for prayer, in which he spent two 



f 

I 

I 



I 



HIS TEIAL. 



137 



iionrs. He waa placed upon an ass, and, on a day of 
great public concourse, conducted towards the town. 
He waa met by Herod the Irenarch and his fathpr 
Nicet-as, wlio took the Bishop, with considerate respect, 
into their own carriage, and vainly endeavoured to 
persuade him to submit to the two teste by wliich the 
Christiana were tried, the salutation of the Emperor by 
the title of Lord, and sacrifice. On his determined 
refusal, their compassion gave place to contumely ; he 
was hastily thrast out of the chariot, and conducted to 
the crowded stadium. On the entrance of the old man 
upon the public scene, the excited devotion of the 
Christian spectators imagined that they heard a voice 
from heaven, " Polycarp, be firm ! " The Heathen, in 
their vindictive fury, shouted aloud, that Polycarp had 
been apprehended. The merciful Proconsul entreated 
him, in respect to hia old age, to dieguiBe his name. 
He proclaimed aloud that ha was Polycai-p; the trial 
proceeded. "Swear," they said, "by the Genius of 
Ctesar; retract, and say, 'Away with the godless!'" 
The old man gazed in sorrow at the frautic and raging 
benches of the spectators, rising above each otiier, and, 
with his eyes uphfted to heaven, said, "Away with the 
godless I " The Proconaol urged him further — " Swear, 
and I release thee ; blaspheme Christ." " Eighty and 
six years have I served Christ, and He has never done 
me wrong; how can I blaspheme my King, and my 
Saviour?" The Proconsul again commanded him to 
swear by the Genius of Cassar. Polycarp rephed, by 
avowing himself a Christian, and by requesting a day to 
be appointed on which he might explain before the 
Proconsul the blameless tenete of Christianity. " Per- 
suade the people to consent," rephed the compassionate 
but overawed ruler. " We owe respect to authority ; 



r 



138 POLYCaKFS PEATER FOB HIS ESEMIES. BoMi,. 

to thee I will explain the reasons of my conduct ; to the 
populace 1 will make no explanation." The old man 
knew too well tlie ferocious passions raging in their 
minds, which it had heen vain to attempt to aUay by 
the rational arguments of Christianity. The Proconsul 
threatened to expose him to the wild beasts. "Tis 
well for me to he speedily released from this life of 
misery." He threatened to hurn him aliva "I fear 
not the fire tiiat burns for a moment ; thon knowest not 
that which burns for ever and ever." The Christian's 
countenance was full of peace and joy, even when the 
herald advanced into the midst of the assemblage, and 
thrice proclaimed — " Polycarp has professed himself a 
Christian I " The Jews and Heathens (for the former 
were in great numbers, and especially infuriated against 
the Christians) replied with an overwhelming shout, 
" This is the teacher of all Asia, the oyerthrower of oiir 
gods, who has perverted so many from sacrifice and the 
adoration of the gods ! " They demanded of the Asiarch, 
the president of the games, instantly to let loose a lion 
upon Polycarp. The Asiarch excused himself by 
alleging that the games were over. A general cry 
arose that Polycarj) should be burned alive. The Jews 
were ^aiu as vindictively active as the Heathens in 
collecting the fuel of the baths, and other combuBtibles, 
to raise up a hasty yet capacious funeral pile. He was 
speedily iinrobed ; he requested not to be nailed to the 
stake ; he was only bound to it. 

The calm and unostentatious prayer of Polycarp may, 
bo considered as embodying the sentiments of the 
Christians of that period. " Lord God Almighty, the 
Father of thy well-beloved and ever-blessed Son Jesus 
Christ, by whom we have received the knowledge of 
thee ; the fJod of augels, powers, and of every ci-eatnre 



4 



HIS lURTTBROM. 



rtjBiP. vn. 
BLad of the whole race of the right«oiia who live before 
thee, I thank thte that thou hast graciously thought me 
woithy of thia day and this hour, that I may receive a 
portion in the number of thy martyrs, and drink of 
Christ's cup, for the resurrection to eternal life, both of 
body and soul, in the incorruptibleness of the Holy 
Spirit ; among whom may I be admitted this day, as a 
rich and acceptable sacrifice, as thou, true and 
faithful G!od, hast prepared, and foreshown, and accom- 
plished. Wherefore I praise thee for all thy mercies ; 
I bless thee ; I glorify thee, with the eternal and 

I heavenly Jesus Clirist, thy beloved Son, to whom, with 
thee and the Holy Spirit, be glory now and for ever." 
The fii-e wiis kindled in vain. It arose curving hke 
an arch around the serene victim, or, like a sail awelhng 
with the wind, left the body unharmed. To the sight 
of the Christians, he resembled a treasure of gold or 

t silver (an allusion to the gold tried in the furnace); 
and delicious odours, as of myrrh or frankincense, 
breathed from his body. An executioner was sent in to 
despatch the victim ; his side was pierced, and blood 
enough flowed from the aged body to extinguish the 
flames immediately around him.' 

»The whole of this narrative has the genuine energy 
of truth : the prudent yet resolute conduct of the aged 
bishop ; the calm and dignified expostulation of the 
governor ; the wild fury of the populace ; the Jews 
eagerly seizing the opportunity of renewing their un- 
slaked hatred to the Christian name, are described with 
the simplicity of nature. Tiie supernatural part of the 




EARTHQUAKE AT 8MTRWV 



BdokQ. 



transaction is no more than may be ascribed to the 
bigb-wrought imagination of the Chriatian spectators, 
deepening every casual incident into a wonder : the 
voice from lieaven, heard only by Christian ears ; the 
flame from the hastily piled wood, arching over the 
unharmed body ; the grateftil otioni-s, not impossibly 
from ai-omatic woods, wliieh were used to warm the 
hatha of the more luxurious, and wiiich were collected 
for the sudden execution ; the effusion of blood, which 
might excite wonder from the decrepit frame of a man 
at least a hundred years old,' Even the vision of 
Polycarp himself,' by which be was foriiwamed of his 
approaching fate, was not unlikely to arise before his 
mind at that perilous crisis. Polycarp closed the 
nameless train of Asiatic martyrs." 

Some few years alter, the city of Smyrna was visited 
with a terrible earthquake ; a generous sympathy was 
displayed by the inbabitants of the neighbouring cities ; 
pravisioDS were poured in from all quarters; homes 
were offered to the houseless; carriages famished to 
convey the infirm and the children from the scene of 
ruin. They received the fugitives as if they had been 
their parents or children. The rich and the poor vied 
in the offlces of charity; and, in the words of the 
Grecian sophist, thought that they were receiving rather 
than conferring a favour.* A Christian historian may 



■ Aoconling to thn gicn 
mfurs, Ladj- MnebctliB diwondl mc- 1 
morj' IB haQated with a Elniilar cir 

" Who would have thought the oli 
mun to hart hud ed modi blood u 
him ? "—macbtth, act t, a. 1. 
' The difficulty nf aciuiaWlj n 



CHi». Vn. KELlGinUS EXCITEMENT OF THE PEHIOD. 141 

be excused if he discerns in this humane conduct the 
manifest progress of Christian benevoleace; and that 
benevolence, if not unfairly ascribed to the influence of 
Christianity, is heightened by the recollection that the 
sufferers were those whose amphitheatre had so recently 
been stained with the blood of the aged martyr. If, 
instead of beholding the retributive hand of Divine 
vengeance in the smouldering ruins of the city, the 
Christiana hastened to alleviate the common miseries of 
Christian and of Pagan with equal zeal and liberality, it 
is impossible not to trace at once the extraordinary revo- 
lution in the sentiments of mankind, and the purity 
of the Christianity which was thus superior to those pas- 
sions which have so often been fatal to its perfections 

At this period of enthusiastic excitement — of Super- 
stition on the one hand, returning in unreasomiig terrcff 
to ita forsaken gods, and working itself up by every 
means to a consolatory feeling of the Divine protection ; 
of Eeligion, on the other, relying in humble confidence 
on the protection of an allruling Providence ; when the 
religions parties were, it might seem, aggrandising theii 
rival deities, and tracing their conflicting powers 
throughout the whole course of human affairs — ^to every 
mind each extraordinary event would he deeply coloured 
with supernatural influence ; and whenever any circum- 
stance really bore a providential or miraculous appear- 
ance, it would be ascribed by each party to the favouring 
interposition of its own god. 

8uch was the celehnited event which was long current 
in Christian history as the miracle of the thundering le- 
gion." Heathen historians, medals atill extant, and the 

' Ses Mejie's Wr-ks, toI. ii. Compare Hnuth, Reliq. Sbotie, I. 153, witt 



142 MIEACLE OP THE THONDEEINQ UIQIOS. Book D. 

column which bears the name of Ankinimis at. Rome, 
Miradcotuie concuT With Christian tradition in commemo- 
uaHuL rating the extraordinary deliverance of the 

ftoman anny, during the war with the German nations, 
from a situation of the utmost peril and difliculty. If the 
Christians at any time served in the Imperial armies ' — 
if militaiy service was a question, as seems extremely 
probable, which divided the early Christiana,' some 
considering it too closeJy connected with the idolatrous 
practices of an oath to the fortunes of Ciesar and with 
the worship of the standards, which were to the rest of 
the army, as it were, the household gods of battle; 
while others were less rigid in their practice, and forgot 
their piety in their allegiance to their sovereign and 
their patriotism to their country — at no time were the 
Christians more likeiy to overcome their scruples than 
at this critical period. The armies were recruited by 
unprecedented means ; and many Christians, wlio would 
before have hesitated to enrol themselves, might less 
reluctantly submit to the conscription, or even think 
themselves justified in engaging in what appeared 
necessary and defensive warfare. There might then 
liave been many Christians in the armies of M. Aurelius, 
— but that they formed u whole separate legion, is 
manifestly the fiction of a later age. In the campaign 
of the year of our Lord 174, the army advanced in- 
cautiously into a country entirely without water ; and, 
in this faint and enfeebled state, was exposed to a 
formidable attack of the whole barbarian force. Sud- 
denly, at their hour of most extreme distress, a copious 



• TertalliHd, in n pnssnge alrmdy r ' Neaader haa developed iliia notion 
quoled, stales distlocUjr, " militamut with his uemd nhllity, in thi> part of. 
I hia Hisloij of tlie Church. ' 



CiiiP. VII. CHKISTIAN. ABD PAGAN, VIEW THEliEOF. 1*3 

and refreshing raiu came down, which supplied their 
wants ; and while their half-recmited strength was still 
iU able to oppose the onset of the enemy, a tremendous 
storm, with lightning, and hailstones of an enormous 
size, drove full upon the adversary, and rendered hia 
army an easy conquest to the reviving Romans.'' Of 
this awful yet seasonable interposition, the whole army 
acknowledged the preternatural, the Divine, origin. By 
those of darker superstition, it was attributed to the 
incantations of the magician Amupliis, who controlled 
the elements to the ser^^ice of the Emperor. The 
medals struck on the occasion, and the votive column 
erected by Marcus himself, render homage to the esta- 
blished deities, to Mercury and to Jupiter." The more 
rational Pagans, with a flatteiy which received the 
suffrage of admiring posterity, gave the honour to the 
virtues of Marcus, which demanded tliia signal favour 
from approving Heaven." The Christian, of course, 
looked alone to that One Almighty God whose pro- 
vidence ruled the whole course of nature, and saw the 
secret operation of his own prayers meeting witJi the 
favourable acceptance of the Most High.' " While the 
Fagane ascribed the honour of this deliverance to their 
own Jove," writes Tertullian, "they unknowingly bore 
testimony to the Christians' God." 



' In the year afler this victory 


De Seip=Q (lib. i. c. 6), >llow> that he 


(A.D. 175), the farmidable rebellion of 


had the magiciaa Amuphis in his 


Ariiius C»s>iuji ditlurhfii the East, 




anil added to the perils and embamus- 




meats of the Empire. 


AimavDre [ifds, MO. quid leor, omas 


• Mercury, according to P^, ap- 


Olwq^l^ MucI nor™ pome™ meml 


i«ars on one of Ihe cdna relatine to 




thi» STent, Compars Reading's BOle 


» In Jovis nomlae Deo nostro teati- 


ID Roulh, loo. cit. 


moniuin rtddidiU TertuUIwi, Ad Sca- 


' Lunpridius (In tiL} attributes 


pulam, p, 20. Euieb. Hist. Eccl. 


thsTktotylotheChaldeuu. UuDUi, 


T. 5, 



\u 



MABTTBS OF YIENNS. 



BooKlI. 



The latter end of the reign of Marcus Aorelius' "was 
signalised by another scene of martyrdom, in a part of 
the empire far distant from that where persecution had 
before raged with the greatest violence, though not 
altogether disconnected from it by the original descent 
of the sufferers.* 

The Christians of Lyons and Vienne appear to have 
Martynof bccn a rcligious colony from Asia Minor or 
Aj). itT. Phrygia, and to have maintained a close cor- 
respondence with those distant communitiea There is 
something remarkable in the connexion between these 
regions and the East. To this district the two Herods, 
Archelaus and Herod Antipas, were successively ba- 
nished ; and it is singular enough, that Pontius Pilate, 
after his recall from Syria, was exiled to the same 
neighbourhood. 

There now appears a Christian community, cor- 
responding in Greek with the mother Church.** It is by 
no means improbable that a kind of Jewish settlement 
of the attendants on the banished sovereigns of Jud»a 
might have been formed in the neighbourhood of 
Vienne and Lyons, and maintained a friendly, no doubt 
a mercantile, connexion with their opulent brethren of 
Asia Minor, perhaps through the port of Marseilles. 
Though Christianity does not appear to have penetrated 



If I had determined to force the 
eyeDts of this period into an accordance 
with my own view of the pei'secutions 
of M. Anrelius, I might hare adopted 
the chronology of Dodwell, who 
assigns the martyrs of Lyons to the 
year 1 67 ; hut the evidence seems in 
fikTour of the later date, 177. See 
Moehcim. Laxdner, who commands 
authority, if not hy his critical 



city, hy his scrapulons honesty, says, 
**Nor do I expect that any learned 
man, who has a concern for his repo- 
tation as a writer, should attempt a 
direct coofotation of this opinion.** 
Works, 4to edit. i. 360. 

« Euseh. Hist £oc y. 1. 

^ £pistola Viennenaium at Lug* 
dunemiam, ia Routh, i. 163. 



tSAPkVlI. GENERAL ATTACK ON THE CDRISTL^'S, 



145 



into Gaiil till rather a late period,' it may havo tra- 
velled by the same conrae, and have been pi-opagated 
in the Jewish settlement by converts from Phrygia or 
Asia Minor. Its Jewish origin is, perhaps, confirmed 
by its adherence to the Judaeo-ChriMtian tenet of 
abstinence from blood,* 

The commencement of this dreadful, thongli local, 
persecution was an ebullition of popular fury. It was 
about the period when the German war, which had 
slumbered during some years of precarious peace, again 
threatened to disturb the repose of the empire. Southern 
Ganl, though secure beyond the Rhine, was yet at no 
great distance from the incursions of the German 
tribes ; and it ia possible that personal apprehensions 
might mingle with the general fanatic terror, which 
exasperated the Heathens against their Christian fellow- 
citizeus. The ChriBtians were on a sudden exposed to 
a general attack of the populace. Clamours soon grew 
to personal violence ; they were struck, dragged about 
the streets, plundered, stoned, shut up in their houses, 
until the more merciful hostility of the ruling autho- 
rities gave orders for their arrest and imprisonment 
uutil tiie arrival of the governor. One man of birth 
gnd rank, Vettius Epagathus. boldly undertook their 
defence against t!ie vague chaises of atheism and 
impiety: he was charged with being himself a Christian, 
and fearlessly admitted the honourable accusation. 'Die 
greater part of the Cliristiau community adliered reso- 





TerlulUan 


Apology, ch. 9, on 


cxpranioD of b ChristiBD vriUr, Sul- 


Origen oo 


titiB CelBum, vlii. : fT»iTi 


pidiiu ScTcrus. 




pp«B» thiLt this abitiBrou 


^ "How coll thnse eat Infants tu 




generol uoong the ovl 


irhom It Is not lawful lo eat the hlood 


ChdUiaus 




•f brutes?" Comprire. liuwevK 






VOL. II. 




b 



146 HE4THR>' CBCELTIES. Bo 

lutely to their belief; the few vrhose coun^ failed ia j 
lUe hour of trial, aod who purchased their security bj | 
shameful gubmission, ncverthele^ did not abandon their j 
wore courageous and suffering brethren, but, at con- 1 
giderable personal danger, continued to alleviate their J 
Bufferings by kindly offices. Some Heathen slaves « 
at length compelled, by the dread of torture, to conflnn I 
the odious chaiges which were so generally advanced * 
against the Christians : — banquets on human flesh ; 
promiscuous and incestuous concubinage; Thyestean 
leasts, and CEdipodean weddings. The extorted ccm- 
fessions of these miserable men exasperated even the 
more moderate of the Heathens, while the ferocious 
populaf:e had now free scope for their sanguinary 
cruelty. The more distinguished victims were Banctus, 
a deacon of Vieune ; a new convert named Matums, 
and Attalus, of Phrygian descent, from the city of 
Pergamus. They were first tortured by means too 
horrible to describe — if, without such description, the 
biurbttrity of the persecutors, and the heroic endurance 
of the Christiau martyrs, conld be justly represented. 
Many perished in the suffocating air of the noisome 
dungeons ; many had their feet strained to dislocation 
in the stocks ; the more detested victims, after all 
other means of torture were exhausted, had hot plates 
of iron placed upon the most sensitive parts of their 
bodies. 

Among these victims was the aged Bishop of Lyons. 
Pothinus, now in hia uiuetieth year, who died in prison 
after two days from the ill usage which he had received 
from the populace. His feeble body liad failed, but his 
mind remained intrepid; when the frantic rabble 
environed him with their insults, and demanded, with con- 
tumelious cries, "Who is the God of the Christians?' 



I 



1. MAHTYEDOM OF BLANDINA. 147 

[ he calmly replied, " Wert thou worthy, thou shouldst 

low." 

But the amphitheatre was the great public scene of 
popular barbarity and of Chriatiau endurance. The 
martyrs were exposed to wild beasts), wliich, liowever, 
do not seem to have been permitted to despatch their 
miserable victims), and made to sit in a heated iron 
chair till their flesh reeked upwards with an offensive 
stench. 

A rescript of the Emperor, instead of allaying the 
popular frenzy, gave ample licence to its uncontrolled 
violence. Those who denied the iaith were to be re- 
leased ; those who persisted in it, condemned to death. 

But the most remai'kable incident in this fearful and 
afflicting scene, and the most characteristic of MHiyrtoro 
the social change which Christianity had "fB""""!^ 
begun to ¥0111, was this, tLat the chief hoaourg of this 
memorable martyrdom were assigned to a female, a 
slave. Even the Christians themselves scarcely appear 
aware of the deep and universal influence of their own 
sublime doctrines. The mistress of Blandina, herself a 
martjT, trembled leat the weak body, and still more 
the debased condition, of tiie lowly associate in her trial, 
might betray her to criminal concession. Blandina 
shared in all tJio most excruciating suflerings of the 
most distinguished victims ; she equalled them in the 
calm and unpretending superiority to every pain which 
malice, irritated and licensed, as it wei^e, to exceed, if 
it were possible, ite own barbarities on the person of a 
slave, could invent. She was selected by the pectilinr 
vengeance of the persecutors, whose astonishment pro- 
bably increased their malignity, for new and unprece- 
dented tortures, which she bore with the same equablp 
inaguauimity. 



148 FURTHER MARTYRDOMS. Book H 

Blandina was first led forth with Sanctns, Matnms, 
and Attalus; and, no doubt, the ignominy of their 
public exposure was intended to be heightened by their 
association with a slave. The wearied executionerR 
wondered that her life could endure under the horrid 
succession of torments which thev inflicted. Blandina's 
only reply was, " I am a Christian, and no wickedness 
is practised among us." 

In the amphitheatre, she was suspended to a stake, 
while the combatants, Maturus and Sanctus, derived 
vigour and activity from the tranquil prayers which she 
uttered in her agony ; and the less savage wild beasts 
kept aloof from their prey. A third time she was 
brought forth, for a public exhibition of suffering, with 
a youth of fifteen, named Ponticus. During every kind 
of torment, her language and her example animated the 
courage and confirmed the endurance of the boy, who at 
length expired under the torture. Blandina rejoiced at 
the approach of death, as if she had been invited to a 
wedding banquet, and not thrown to the wild beasts. 
She was at length released. After she had been 
scourged, placed in the iron chair, enclosed in a net, 
and, now in a state of insensibility, tossed by a bull, 
some more merciful barbarian transpierced her with a 
sword. The remains of all these martyrs, after lying 
long unburied, were cast into the Rhone, in order 
to mock and render still more improbable their hopes 
of a resurrection. 




I 



of M. j\areliii9. 

SocH was the state of Christianity at the cominencemeiit 
of the fourth period between ita first promul- y,„,^ 
gatioQ and its establishment under CouBtantine. '*"^' 
The golden daya of the lloman Empire had alreadj 
begun to darken, and closed for ever with the reign of 
Marcus the Philosopher. The empire of the world be- 
came the prize of bold adventure, or the precarious gilt 
of a lawless soldiery. During little more than K»pid me- 
a century, from the accession of Commodus to Emperors 
that of Diocletian, more than twenty Emperors ut. 
(not to mention the pageants of a day, and the compe- 
titors for the throne who retained a temporary authority 
over some single province) flitted like shadows along 
the tragic scene of the imperial palace. A long line 
of military adventurers, often eti-angers to the name, 
to the race, to the language of Eome — Africans and 
Syrians, Arabs and Goths — seized the quickly shifting 
sceptre of the world. The change of sovereign «aH 
almost always a change of dynasty ; or, by some strange 
fatality, every attempt to re-establish an hereditary 
succession was thwarted by the vices or imbecility of 
the second generation. JVT. Aurelius is succeeded bj' 
the brutal Commodus ; the vigorous and able Sevenia 
by the fratricide CaracaUa. One of the imperial his- 
torians has made the melancholy observation, that of 
the great men of Kome scarcely one left a son the heir 
virtues ; they had either died without offspring, 



150 



T CHRISTUNITT. 



ootIP 



or had left such heira, that it had been better for man- 
kind if they had died leaving no posterity.' 

In the weakness and insecurity of the throne lay 
iniecnrity the strength and safety of Christianity, 
ihime ft- During snch a period, no eystematic policy 
"cttriiti- ^^^ pursued in any of the leading internal 
'""'■ interests of the empire. It was a government 

of temporary expedients, of individual passions. The 
first and commanding object of each succeeding head 
of a dynasty was to secure his contested throne, and to 
i;entre upon himself the wavering or divided allegiance 
of the provinces. Many of the Emperors were deeply 
and inextricably involved in foreign wars, and had no 
time to devote to the social changes within the pale of 
the empire. The tumults or the terrors of tlie German, 
or Gothic, or Persian inroad, eS'ected a perpetual diver- 
sion from the alow and silent intfitnal aggressions of 
Christianity, The frontiers constantly and imperiously 
demanded the presence of the Emperor, and left him 
no leisure to attend to the feeble remonstrances of the 
neglected priesthood. The dangers of the ciWl absorbed 
those of the religious constitution. Thus Christianity 
had another century of regular and progressive ad- 
vancement to arm itself for the inevitable collision with 
the temporal authority, till, in the reign of Diocletian, it 
iiad grown far beyond the power of the moat unlimited 
and arbitrary despotism to arrest its invincible progress ; 
and Constantine, whatever the motives of his conversion, 
no doubt adopted a wise and judicious policy in securing 
the alliance of, rather than continuing the strife with, an 

■ Neminem props mn^norum vira- I erimt plprique, uc rneliils fueriC de 
viim DptiTiiDm et uUlem filium reli- rebiia humnnis sine posteiiUlc di»^e- 

liheiii Tlrf inlei'ifnmt, aut tales hsbu- | p. 360, 



[ 

I 



CAUSES OP PERSECDTIOHS. Ifil 

adversary which divided the wealth, the intellect, if not 
the property and the population, of the empire. 

The persecutions which took place during this interval 
were the hasty conseqneneea of the personal 
hostility of the Emperors, not the mature and periMu- 
deliberate policy of a regular and permanent during uiij 
government. In general, the vices and the 
detestable characters of the perseeutore would tend to 
vindicate the innocence of Christianity, and to enlist 
the sympathies of mankind in its favour, rather than to 
deepen the general animosity. Christianity, which had 
received the respectful homage of Alexander Sevemn, 
could not lose in public estimation by being exposed 
to the gladiatorial fury of Maximin, Some of the 
Emperors were almost as much strangers to the gods as 
to the people and to the senate of Home. They seemeil 
to take a reckless delight in violatmg the ancieut 
majesty of the Roman religion. Foreign superstitions, 
almost equally new, and scarcely less offensive to the 
general sentiment, received the public, the pre-eminent 
homage of the Emperor. Commodus, though the Gre- 
cian Hercules was at once liis model, his type, and hia 
deity, was an ardent votary of the Isiac mysteries ; and 
at the Syrian worship of the Sun, in all its foreign and 
Oriental pomp, Elagabalus commanded the attendance 
of the trembling senate. 

If Marcus Aurelius was, as it were, the last effort 
of expiring Polytheism, or rather of ancient comnioitiii. 
philosophy, to produce a perfect man accord- lea.' 
iug to the highest ideal conception of human reason. 
the brutal Commodus might appear to retrograde to the 
eavage periods of society. Commodus was a gladiator 
on the throne ; and if the mind, humanised either bj' 
the milder spirit of the times, or by the incipient 



152 HEION AND CHAR4CTER OF COMM0DU3. BooilL 

influence of Cliristianity, had begun to turn in distaste 
from the horrible spectacles which flooded the arena with 
human carnage, tlie disgust would be immeaaurabljr 
deepened by the appearance of the Emperor aa the I 
chief actor in these sanguinary aceues. Even Nero'a 
theatrical exhibitions had something of the elegance of 
a polished age ; the actor in one of the noble tragedies 
nf ancieut Greece, or even the accomplished musician, 
might derogate from the dignity of an Emperor, yet 
might, in some degree, excuse the unaeemliness of his ■ 
pursuits by their intellectual character. But the amuse- j 
mentB and public occupations of Commodus hiul long | 
been consigned by the general contempt and abhorrenca 
to the meanest of mankind, to barbarians and slaves ; 
and were as debasing to the civilised man as unbecom- 
ing ill the head of the empire.'' Tlie courage which 
Oommodus displayed in confronting the hundred lions 
which were let loose in the arena, and fell by his shafts 
(though in fact the Imperial person was cftrefiiUy . i 
guarded i^iast real danger), and the skill with which | 
ha clave with an arrow the slender neck of the girafTe, 
might have commanded the admiration of a flatffii'ing 
court. But when he appeared as a gladiator, gloried 
in the acta, and condescended to receive the disgraceful 
pay of a profession so infamous as to degrade for ever 
the man of rank or character wlio had been forced 
upon the stage by the tyranny of former Emperors, the 
courtiers, who had been bred in the severe and dignified 
school of the Philosopher, must have recoiled with 
shame, and approved, if not envied, the more rigid 
principles of the Chriatiaua, which kept them aloof from 
such degrading spectacles. Commodus was an avowed 



I 

I 

I 

I 




BEIPICATION OF COMMODUS. 



Ifi3 



I 



■proeelyte of the Egyptian religion, but liia favourite god 
was the Grecian Hercules. He usurped the attributes 
and placed bis own head on the etatuea of tbia deity, 
which was the impersonation, as it were, of brute force 
and corporeal strength. But a deity which might com- 
mand adoration in a period of primseTal bai'bariBiu, 
when man lives in a state of perilous warfare with the 
beasts of the forest, in a more intellectual age sinks to 
his proper level. He might be the appropriate god of 
a gladiator, but not of a Koman Emperor." 

Everything which tended to desecrate the popular 
religion to the feeliugs of the more enlightened and 
intellectual must have strengthened the cause of Chris- 
tianity; the more the weaker parts of Paganism, and 
those most alien to the prevailing sentiment of the 
times, were obtruded on the public view, the more they 
must bave contributed to the advancement of that faith 
which was rapidly attaining to the full growth of a rival 
to the established religion. The subsequent deification 
of Commodus, under the reign of Sevenia, in wanton 
resentment against the senate,* prevented his odious 
memory from sinking into oblivion. His insults upon 
the more rational part of the existing religion could no 
longer be forgotten, as merely emanating from his 
persomJ character, Commodus advanced into a god, 
after his death, brought disrepute upon the whole 
Polytheism of the empire. Christianity was perpetually. 



1 



' In I 



f ragmen 



M. Mni there ia i 
epigram ptnoted igainat the nsfiuin 
;iaa nf the nttributcs of Hercules I 
Commodua. The Cmpcmr hod plac 
hit own bead on the colnSBal ttatne 
Hercules, with the inscription — *' L 
dui CommDduB Hercules." 



The point is not verf clear, but itaeemi 
ta be a protHt of tbe God ngainet being 
confounded with the Emperor. Mai, 
' Fmgm. Vatic, ii. 225. 

li S™eru», Hilt. Au^ 



154 EEIGN OF SEVEHnS. 

as it were, at hand, and ready to profit by every fevoni"' 
able juncture. By a siogular accident, the 
Cotnniodus was personally less inimically disposer! to 
the Christians than his wise and amiable father. Kis 
favourite concubine, Marcia, in some manner connected 
M'ith the Cliristians, mitigated the barbarity of Iiis tfim- 
per, and restored to the persecuted Christians a long 
and unbroken peace, which had been perpetually inter- 
rupted by the hostility of the populace, and the edicts 
of the Government in the former reign, Christianity 
had no doubt been rigidly repelled from the precincts 
of the court during tlie life of Marcus, by the predomi- 
nance of the philosophic faction. From this period, a 
Christian party occasionally appears in Rome. Many 
families of distinction and opulence professed Christian 
tenets, and the religion is sometimes found iu connexion 
with the Imperial family. Still Rome, to the last, 6eemH 
to have been the centre of the Pagan interest, though 
other causes will hereafter appear for this curious fact 
in the conflict of the two religions, 

SeveruB wielded the sceptre of the world with the 
Reign of vigour of the older Empire. But his earlier 
»!bmiuio years were occupied in the establishment of 
^"'- his power over the hostile factions of liis com- 

petitors, and by his Eastern wars ; his latter by the 
settlement of the remote province of Britain,' Severus 
was at one time the protector, at another the persecutor, 
of Christiauity. Local circumstances appear to have 
influenced his conduct, on both occasions, to the Chris- 
tian party. A Christian named Proculua, a dependent, 
probably, upon his favourite freed slave Evodus, bad 
been so fortunate as to restore Severus to health by 



1 



rNPANCT OF CAHACALLA. 

anointing him with oil, and was received into the Im- 
perial family, in which he retained his honourftble 
situation till his death. Not improbably through the 
same connexion, a Christian nnrse and a Christian pre- 
ceptor formed the disposition of the yonng inrsmyot 
Caracalla ; and, till the natural ferocity of his ^""^ 
character ripened under the fatal infinence of jealous 
ambition, fraternal hatred, and unbounded power, the 
gentleness of liis manners and the sweetness of bis 
temper enchanted and attached his family, his friends, 
the senate, and the people of Rome. The people be- 
held with satisfaction the infant pupil of Christianity 
turning; aside his bead and weeping at the barbarity 
of the ordinary public spectacles, in whieb criminals 
were exposed to wild beasts/ The Christian interest at 
the court repressed the occasional outbursts of popular 
animosity: many Christians of rank and distinction 
enjoyed the avowed favour of the Emperor, Their se- 
curity may partly be attributed to their calm determi- 
nation not to mingle themselves up with the contending 
factions for the empire. During the conflict 
of parties, they bad refused to espouse the dictQitte 

n-.vT .11- Ti- 1 CtriallADS. 

cause of either JNiger or Albmus. Ketired 
within tbemselves, they rendered their prompt aud 
cheerful obedience to the mhng Emperor. The impla- 
cable vengeance which Severus wreaked on the senate 
for their real or suspected inclination to the party of 
Albinus, his remorseless execution of so many of the 
noblest of the aristocracy, may have placed in a stronger 
light the happier fortune, and commended the unim- 
peachable loyalty, of the Christians. The provincial 
governors, as usual, reflected the example of the court ; 



156 PERSECUTION IN THE EAST. DookU. 

Bome adopted merciful expedients to avoid the necessity 
of carrying the laws into effect against those Christians 
who were denounced before their tribimals; whilo the 
more venal humanity of others extorted a considerable 
profit from the Christians for their security. The un- 
lawful religion, in many places, purchased its peace at 
the price of a regular tax, wliich was paid by other 
illegal, aud mostly infamous, professions. This traffia 
with the authorities was sternly denounced by some of 
the more ardent believers, as degrading to the religion, 
and as an ignominious barter of the hopes and glories of 
martyrdom.* 

Such was the flourishing and peaceful state of Chris- 
Ffiwcniion tianity during the early part of the reign of 
iniiioE«u ggverus. In the East, at a later period, lie 
embraced a sterner policy. During the conflict with 
Niger, the Samaritans had efipouaed the losing, 
the Jews the successful, party. The edicts of 
Severua were, on the whole, favourable to the Jews, but 
the prohibition to circumcise proselytes was re-enacted 
during his residence in Syria, in the tenth year of his 
reign. The same prohibition against the admission of 
new proselytes wa-i extended to the Christians. But 
chriitimiw this edict may have been intended to allay the 
cui^iTiha violence of the hostile factions in Syria. Of 
"^*"' the persecution tinder Severus there are few, 

if any, traces in the West," It is confined to Syria, 



f Sed quid Don timiditaa [wsiuide- 


TertoU. De Fugl, c. 13. 


bit, quasi et I'ugere Bcnpluro permit- 


> « Nou. nn tranmos rien de (onsidB- 


tat, el i-edimere p.-sjcipial Sescio 


rable louohonl lea nartTra que la pw- 


dolmdnm an erubwcmdum sit eum io 


seeuUon de SerSre a pu ftire i Stmt 




eteallalie." Tillemoiit. St-Andeole, 




and the other martyis iu Goul (TOIe- 


bdnarum et aleonea st lenonea, Chrta- 


mont, p. 160), are of man than suapi. 







Chaf. VIII. TUE EMPEKOR VISITS EGYPT. 157 

perhaps to Cappadocia, to Eijypt, and to Africa ; and, 

in the latter provinces, appeare as the act of hostile 
governors, proceeding upi)u the existing laws, rather 
than the consequence of any recent edict of the Em- 
peror. The Syrian Eusebiaa may have exaggerated 
local acts of oppression, of which the sad traces were 
recorded in bis native country, iTito a general persecu- 
tion : he admits that Alexandria was the chief scene of 
Christian suffering. The date and the scene p„ii,bie 
of the persecution may lend a clue to itsorigin. """^ 
From Syria, the Emperor, exactly at this time, pro- 
ceeded to Egypt. He surveyed, with wondei^ 
ing interest, the monuments of Eg}T)tian glory 
and of Egyptian superstition,' the temples of Memphis, 
the Pyramids, the Labyrinth, the Memnoaiiiim. The 
plague alone prevented him from contiuuinj; his excur- 
sions into Ethiopia. The dark and relentless raind of 
SeveniB appears to have been strongly impressed with 
the religion of Serapis, In either character, as the great 
Pantheistic deity, which absorbed the attributes and 
functions of all the more ancient gods of Egypt, or with 
his more limited attribntes, as the Pluto of their my- 
thology, the lord of the realm of departed spirits, Serapis" 
was likely to captivate the imagination of Severus, and 
to suit those gloomier moods in which he delighted in 
brooding over the secrets of futurity ; and, having 
realised the proud proi^ostics of greatness, which his 
youth had watched with hope, now began to dwell on 
the darker omens of decline and dissolution.™ The 
hour of imperial favour was likely to be seized by the 

' Spartian. Hist Aug. p. 553. i rqnsultiug the gutabiography of tbo 

'- CDmpAreDe Guigniaut, SerapiB et Emprot SeTemn. Hid time but 

Ml OrigiDc. I iptticd UB th> arigiDBl, uid taken tilt 

" Smrtum hod the ndvantagp of [ whole Augustan hlatary in eichao^ I 



158 



PER3ECDT10M IN ALEXANDRIA. Book II 



Egyptian priesthood to obtain the mastery and to wreak 
their revenge on this new foreign religion, which 
making such rapid progress throughout the provinces 
and the whole of Africa. Whether or not the Emperor 
actually autJiorised the persecution, his countenance 
would strengthen the Pagan interest, and encourage 
the obsequious Prefect" in adopting violent meaaures. 
Lsetus would be vindicating the religion of the Emperor 
in asserting the superiority of Serapia ; and the supe- 
riority of Serapia could be by no means so effectually 
. by the oppression of his most powerful 
, Alexandria was the ripe and pregnant soil 
of religions feud and deadly animosity. Three hostile 
parties divided the city — the Jews, the Pagans, and the 
ChristianB. They were perpetually blending and modi- 
fying each other's doctrines, and forming schools in 
which Judaism allegorised itself into Platonism, and 
Platonism, having assimilated itself to the higher Egyp- 
tian mytliology, soared into Christianity ; and thus Plsr- 
tonio Christianity, from a religion, became a mystio 
philosophy. They all awaited, nevertheless, the signal 
for persecution, and for licence to draw off in sanguinary 
factions, and to settle the controversies of the schools 
by bloody tumults in the streets." The perjietual syn- 
cretism of opinions, instead of leading to peace and 
charity, seemed to inflame the deadly animosity; and 
the philosophical spirit, \vhich attempted to blend all 



1 



- His name was L«iu«. liruebim, 


ln9cloth«<. Tl 


eboTofsevenieaisent 


Hist. Ecd. vi. 2. 


a letter to hia 


father, entimfiag him 


• Imuidis, 1]k father of OrigcD, 




paroilal afleclioQ for 


peiiihed iu this peiseeulion. Or%™ 


himself and hi 


ail brathera to shu.d 


wu kept swa; from joining him id his 


in hb wy of 


bUiBlng; the nmrtyr'. 




«own. F-ustb 


vi. 3. The propertj 


martyrdom, only bjr thr prudent strn- 


DfLmnidMwuB 


coTiHatalfd to llwiir 




p.»l tm«.rr. 


Ibid. 



I 



I 



I 



ZBAt. VllJ. STATE OF THE AFEICAN CHURCH. 159 

the higher doctrineB into a lofty Eclectic system, had 
111) effect in harmoniMiiig- the miiida of the diflerent sect" 
to mutual toleratiou and amity. It was now the triumph 
of Paganism. The controversy with Cbristlanity was 
carried ou by burning the priests and torturing the 
virginsj until the catechetical or elementary schools oi' 
learning, by which the Alexandrian Christians trained up 
their pupils for the reception of their more mysterious 
doctrines, were deserted. The young Origen alone 
laboured, with indefatigable and successful activity, to 
supply the void caused by the general desertion of the 
persecuted teachers. ^ 

The African Prefect followed the example of Ltetus 
in Egj-pt. In no part of the Koman Empire 
had Christianity taken more deep and perma- 
nent root than in the province of Africa, then crowded 
with rich and populous eities, and forming, with Egypt, 
the granary of the Western world ; but which many 
centuries of Ghristian i'eud, Vandal invasion, and Mo- 
hammedan barbarism, have blasted to a thinly-peopled 
desert Up to this period, this secluded region had gone 
on advancing in its uninterrupted course of civilization. 
Since the battle of Thapsua, the AlHcan province had 
stood aloof i'rom tlic tumults and desolation which 
attended the changes in the imperial dynasty. As yet 
it had raised no competitor for the empire, though 
Severus, the ruling monarch, was of African descent. 
The single legion, which was considered adequate to 
protect the remote tranquillity of the province from the 
occasional incursions of the Moorish tribes, had been 
foand BufBcient for its purpose. The Paganism of the 
Afirican cities was probably weaker than in other parts 



160 



AFRICAN CHRISTIAXITT. 



of the empire. It had no ancient and sacred associft- ■] 
tions with national pride. The new cities had raised | 
new temples, to gods foreign to the region. The religion J 
of Carthage,* if it bad not entirely perished with the I 
final destruction of the city, maintained but a feeUe | 
hold upon the Italiauised inhabitant?. The Carth^«ft ] 
of the Empire was a Roman city. IfChristianitytended | 
to mitigate the fierce spirit of the inhabitants of these ' 
burning regions, it acquired itaelf a depth and impaa- 
eioned vehemence, which perpetmilly broke through all 
restrainls of moderation, charity, and peace. From 
TertuUian to Augustine, the climate seems to be working 
into the language, into the essence of Christianity. 
Here disputes maddened into feuds ; and feuds, which, 
in other countries, were allayed by time, or died away ■ 
of themselves, grew into obstinate, implacable, and | 
irreconcileable factions. 

African Christianity had no communion with the I 
AWcm dreamy and speculative genius of the East. It I 
chruiiMiij-. gtgrnly rejected the wild and poetic imperson»- I 
tions, the daring cosmogonies, of the Gnostic sects: 
was severe, simple, jiractical, in its creed ; it governed | 
by its strong and imperious hold upon the feelings, by , 
profound and agilating emotiou. It eagerly received 
the rigid asceticism of the anti -materialist system, while ■ I 
it disdained the fantastic theories by which that system j 
accounted for the origin of evil. The imagination had i 
another office than that of following out its own fantastic ■ 1 
creations; it spoke directly to the feare and to the I 



« Cf>inp.ire Muntn-, l^elig. der Cur- 
Ihager. The worship of ihe Dm ao- 
Iwlis, the Q^«n of Hmv«i, shoold 
pn-haps be ei«j>l«d. See, forward, 
the rgiga of Elnpibniiis. En 



fifth oaturj the Queen of Haven, 
Hccording Id ^iTinn ([>e Gubenuttioiu 
Dei, lib. viii.), >hii«) with Cbriat tba 
vorahip of Carthage. 



PCkap. Vtll. UONTANISM. 



^M passioiui ; it delighted in realising the terrors of the 
^r final Judgement; in arraying, in the most appalling 
language, the gloomy mysteries of future retribution. 
Tiiis character appears in the dark splendour of Ter- 
tnllian's writings ; engages liim in contemptuous and 
relentless warfare against the Gnostic opinions, and 
their latest and most dangerous champion, Marcion; 
till, at length, it hardens into the severe, yet simpler, 
enthusiasm of Montanism. It appears, allied with the 
stern assertion of occlesiiistical order and sacerdotal 
domination, in the earnest and zealous Cyprian ; it is 
still manifestly working, though in a chastened and 
loftier form, in the deep and impassioned, but compre- 
hensive, mind of Augustine. 

Tertuilian alone belongs to the present period, and 
Tertuliian is, perhaps, the representative and the perfect 
type of this AfricaniBm. It is among the most remark- 
able illustratiojis of the secret unify which connected 
the whole Christian world, that opinions first propagated 
on the shores of the Euxine found their most vigorous 

I antagonist on the coast of Africa, while a new and fervid 
enthusiasm, which arose in Phrygia, captivated the 
kindred spirit of Tertuilian. Montanism harmonised 
with AlHean Clu'istianity in the simplicity of 
1 ,. 1 MonlaniBm. 

Its creed, which did not depart from the pre- 
dominant form of Christianity ; and in the extreme 
rigour of its fasts. While Gnosticism outbid the religion 
of Jesus and his Apostles, Montanism outbid the Gnos- 
tics in its austerities ; ' it admitted marriage as a neces- 



• The Wnrtem Ch 


udiea w«re, m mnrLyr of Lroni, in whidi I nrltow- 


^ g««™lly «e.« 


o the eicesidTe prisocer, Alclbladu, crhuhndlouellFcd 


&.tmg rabKqusnlly ii 


frwiuoed to to on braul and vraler olciie, woi ivproTi'd 


Ei«t ». Ut«Dt bj the 


■nomstic spirit, for ml making frw use of Gmi'B Meii- 


8m the L-orioua TiiioD 


of Attnlua, the tur*a, nnd thin giTinf offcmje to ih? 


VOL. IL 


M 



162 



MONTANISM. 



sary evil, but it denounced second nuptials as an im 
I'iable sin;' above all, Montauism concurred vith 
ijelief of the South in resoiviug religion into invk'snl 
emotion. There is a singular correspondence between 
Phrygian Heathenism and the Phrygian Christianity of 
Montanus and liis followers. The Urgiasm, the inward 
raiJture, the working of a divine influence upon the 
soul till it WHS wrought up to a state of holy frenzy, had 
continually sent forth the priests of Cybele, and females 
of a highly excitable temperament, into the WesteiW 
provinces ; ' whom the vulgar beheld with awe, as mani- 
festly possessed by the divinity ; whom the philosophid 
party, eqiially mistaken, treated with contempt, 
impostors. So, with the followers of Montanus (and. 
women were his most ardent votaries), with Prisca and 
Maximilln, the apostles of his sect, the pure, and me^ 
and peaceful spirit of Christianity became a wild* ■ 
visionary, a frantic enthusiasm : it worked paroxysms t£ 
iutenee devotion ; it made the soul partake of all the 
fever of physical excitement. As in all ages wiiere ths 
mild and rational faith of Christ has been too calm and 
serene for persons brooding to madness over their own 
internal emotions, it proclaimed itself a religious ad- 



1 

t}i6^ 



Church. The Churthe. of Ljon. cud 


Phrygian national character in Socn- 


Viaone, hBviiig been fouoded from 


ts,H. E. iv.28:-"Tbe PhrygUn. 


Phryga. were iniiaus to avoid the 


lire n chaste and lempenite people j 




ihej- seldom sweat : the Scythians and 


HM. EcGl. r. 3. 


Thisdans are choleric! Ihe hjflleni 






husbands, BceordingtoApoUoaiuaapud 




liuscb. T, 18. 


neither: Ihey do not c»ro for the 


■ The effect of ratiolal ehimcter 




and lemperament nn the opinio™ uid 




foiio of religion did not escape the ob- 


seem lo hsre broken mrt at all periodi 


servation of tlie Christinn Krilert, 


in I'digioua emotiam. 



■ Ch 



ATOLOUT OF TERTdLLUN. 



Tanoement, a more sublime and spiritual Cimetiaiiity. 
Judaism was the infancy, Christianity the youth, the 
revelation of the Spirit the manhood of the human soul. 
It was this Spirit, this Paraclete, which resided in all 
its fiilness in the bosom of Montanus ; his adversaries 
asserted that he gave liimself out as the Paraclete ; bnt 
it is more probable that his vague and mystic language 
was misunderstood, or, possibly misrepresented by the 
malice of his adversaries. In Moritanism the sectarian, 
the exclusive spirit, was at its height ; and this claim to 
higher perfection, this aeclusion from the vulgar race of 
Christians, whose weakness had been too often shown in 
the hour of trial; who had neither attained the Iieight 
of his austerity, nor courted martyrdom, nor refused all 
ignominious compromises with the persecuting authori- 
ties with the unbending rigour which he demanded, 
would still further commend the claims of Montaniem to 
the homage of Tertullian. 

During the persecution under Severus, Tertullian 
stood forth as the apologist of Christiamty ; Apology of 
and the tone of his Apology is characteristic '^""°'"™- 
not only of the man, but of liis native country, 
■while it is no less illustrative of the altered position of 
Christianity. The address of Tertullian to Scapula, the 
Prefect of Africa, is no longer in the tone of tranquil 
expostulation against the barbarity of persecuting blame- 
lea and unoffending men, still less that of humblf 
BUpphcalion, Every sentence breathes scorn, defiance; 
menace. It heaps contempt upon the gods of Paganism ; 
it avows the determination of the Cliristians to expel 
the dcermim from the respect and adoration of mankind. 
It condescends not to exculpate the Christians from 
being the cause of the calamities which had recently 
t laid waste the province ; the torrent rains which liiit' 



IG4 WAHNING TO THE PERSECUTORS. 



swept away the harveeta; the fires whicli had het^ta^' 
with ruin the streets of Carthage ; the siia which tmdH 
been pretematurally eolipBed, when at its mendiaoji' 
duiiDg an assembly of the province at Utica. All theat 
portentous signs are unequivocally ascribed to the 
geance of the Christians' God, viaiting the guilt of 
obstinate idolatry. The persecutors of the Christians 
aiie warned by the awful examples of Eoman dignitaries 
who had been stricken blind, and eaten with worms, au 
tlie ehastisement of Heaven for their injustice and 
cruelty to the worsbijjpers of Christ. Scapula himself 
is atemly admoniehed to talie warning by tbeir fate ; 
while the orator, by no means deficient, at the same 
time, in dexterous address, reminds him of the humane 
[lolicy of others : — " Your cruelty will be our glory. 
Thousands of both sexes, and of every rank, wiU eagerly 
crowd to martyrdom, exhaust your fires, and weary your 
swords. Carthage must be decimated ; the principal 
I)eTaons in the city, even, perhaps, your own most inti- 
mate &iends and kindred, must be sacriiiced. Yaiufy 
will you war against God. Magistrates ate but mei^. 
and will suffer the common lot of mortality ; but Chria* 
Inanity will endure as long as the Eoman Empire, anA' 
the duration of the Empire will he coeval with that of' 
the world." " 

History, even Christian history, is confined to moio 
.[general views of public affairs, and dwells too escltisively 
'in what may be called the high places of human life ; 
but whenever a glimpse is aflbrded of lowlier, and of 
more common life, it is, perhaps, best fulfilling its ofiBoe 
of presenting a lively picture of the times, if it alloivs 



MM ^ 



\ 




Chap. VIII. 



PERPETUA AND FELICITAS. 



ie5 



Itself occasionally some more minute detail, and il-* 
lostrates the manner in which the leading events of 
particular periods affected individuals not in the highest 
station. 

Of all the histories of martyrdom, none is so unex- 
aggerated in its tone and language, so entirely 
unencumbered with miracle ; none abounds in of Perpetua 

-,,-/» 1 and FeUdtas. 

such exquisite touches of nature, or, on the 
whole, from its minuteness and circumstantiality, 
breathes such an air of truth and reality, as that of 
Perpetua and Felicitas, two African females. Their 
death is ascribed, in the Acts, to the year of the accession 
of Geta, * the son of Severus. Though there was no 
general persecution at that period, yet, as the 
Faithful held their lives, at all times, liable 
to the outburst of popular resentment, or the caprice of 
an arbitrary proconsul, there is much probability that a 
time of general rejoicing might be that in which the 
Christians, who were always accused of a disloyal re- 
luctance to mingle in the popular festivities, and who 
kept aloof from the public sacrifices on such auniver- 



AJ>. 202. 



■ The external evidence to the au- 
thenticity of these Acts is not quite 
equal to the internal. They were first 
published by Lucas Holstenius, from 
a MS. in the Convent of Monte Casino ; 
re-edited by Valesius at Paris, and by 
Hoinart, in his Acta Siucera Mar- 
tynnn, p. 90, who collated two other 
MSS. There appear, however, strong 
indications that the Acts of these 
African Martyrs are translated from 
the Greek ; at least it is difficult other- 
wise to account for the frequent un- 
tmaflatod Greek words and idioms 
in the text. The following are ex- 



amples : c iii., turbarnm beneBcio, 
X<H^v' c. iv., bene venisti, tegnon, 
reKvhv c. viii., in oramate, a vision, 
opafKxri' diadema, or diastema, an 
interval, Huurrrjfia' c z., afe, &^* 
xii., agios, agios, agios. 

There are indeed some suspicious 
marks of Montanism which perhaps 
prevented these Acts from being more 
generally known. 

It is not quite clear where these 
martyrs suffered. Valesius supposed 
Carthage; others^ in one of the two 
towns called Tuburbium which wev* 
situated in Proconsular Africa. 



IMPRISONMENT OF PERPETUA. BookB., 



saries, would be most exposed to pei-secution. The 
youtliful catechumens, Revocatus and Felicitas, Sattir^ 
ninua and Secundulus, were apprehended, and with them 
Vivia Perpetua, a woman of good family, liberal edae&- 
tioi), and honourably married. Perpetua was about 
twenty-two years old ; her father and mother were living: 
she bad two brothers, — one of them, like herself, t 
catechumen, — and an tnfiaiit at her breast. The history 
of the persecution is related by Perpetua herself, and is 
said to have been written by her own hand: — "When 
we were in the bands of the persecutorfl, my father, in 
his tender affection, persevered in his endeavoura to 
pervert me from the faith.'' ' My father, this vessel, ba 
it a pitcher, or any tiling else, can we call it by any 
other name?' 'Certainly not,' he replied. 'Nor caul 
call myself by any other name but that of Chriatian,' 
My father looked as if he could bare plucked my eyes 
out ; but ho only harassed mo, and departed, persuaded 
by the arguments of the devil. Then, after being a 
few days without seeing my father, I was enabled to 
give thanks to God, and his absence was tempered to 
my spirit. After a few days we were baptized, and the 
waters of baptism seemed to give power of endurance to 
my body. Again a few days, and we were cast into 
prison, I was terrified ; for I had never before seen 
such total darkness. O miserable day ! — from the 
dreadful heat of the prisoners crowded together, and the 
insults of the soldiers. But I was wrung with solicitude 
for my infant. Two of our deacons, however, by the 
payment of money, obtained our removal for some hours 
in the day to a more open part of the prison. Each ot 



li 



1 

I 

I 
I 




I 

I 



the captives then pursued his usual occupation ; bnt I 
«at and suckled my infant, who was wasting away with 
hunger. In my anxiety, I addressed and consoled my 
mother, and commended my child to my brother ; and 
I began to pine away at seeing them pining away on 
my account And for many days I suffered this anxiety, 
and accustomed my child to remain in the prison with 
me ; and I immediately recovered my strength, and was 
relieved from my toil and trouble for my infant, and 
the prison became to me like a palace ; and I was 
happier there than I should have been anywhere else. 

"My brother then said to me, ' Perpetua, you are ex- 
alted to such dignity, that you may pray for a vision, and 
it shall be shown you whether our doom is martyrdom 
or release.' " This is the language of Montanism ; but 
the vision is exactly that which might haunt the slumbers 
of the Christian in a high state of religious enthusiasm ; 
it showed merely the familiar images of the faith, 
arrangiog themselves into form. She saw a lofty ladder 
of gold, ascending to heaven ; around it were swords, 
lances, hooks; and a great dragon lay at its foot, to 
seize those who would ascend. Saturus, a distinguished 
Christian, went up first ; beckoned her to follow ; and 
controlled the dragon by the name of Jesus Christ. 
She ascended, and found herself in a spacious garden, 
in which sat a man with white hair, in the garb of a 
shepherd, milking his sheep,^ with many myriads around 
him. He welcomed her, and gave her a morsel of 
cheese; and "I received it with folded hands, and ate 
it; and all the sainte around exclaimed, 'Amen.' I 
awoke at the sound, with the sweet taste in my mouth. 



16B TRIAL AND CONSTANCY OF PERPETUA. B« 

and I related it to my brother ; and we knew that 
martyrdom was at baud, and we began to have no hop9 > 
in this world." 

" After a few days, there was a rumour that we were 
to be heard. And my father came Irom the city, wasted 
away with anxiety, to pervert me ; and he said, ' Hi 
wmpaasion, my daugliter ! od my grey hairs ; hav« 
eompassion on thy'father, if he is worthy of the name 
of father. If I have thus brought thee up to the flow^ 
of thine age ; if I have preferred thee to all thy bro- 
thers, do not expose me to tliis disgrace. Look on thy 
brother; look on thy mother, and thy aunt; look on 
thy child, who cannot live without thee. Do not destroy 
us all.' Thus spake my father, kissing my hands in his 
fondness, and throwing himself at my feet; and in 
his tears he called me not his daughter, but his miatrees 
(domiua). And I was grieved for the grey hairs of my 
father, because he aJone, of all our family, did not 
rejoice in my martyrdom ; and I consoled hiin, saying, 
' In this trial, what God wills, will take place. Know 
that we are not in our own power, but in that of God.' 
And he went away sorrowing. 

" Another day, while we were at dinner, we were 
suddenly seized and carried off to trial ; and we came 
to the town- The report spread rapidly, and an im- 
mense multitude was assembled. We were placed at 
the bar; the rest were interrogated, and made their 
confession. And it came to my turn ; and my father 
instantly appeared with ray child, and he drew me down 
the step, and said in a beseeching tone, 'Have com- 
passion on your infant ; ' and Hilarianus the procuratoi, 
who exercised the power of life and death for the Pro- 
cimsul Timinianus, who had died, said, ' Spare the grey 
Imirs of your parent ; spare your iuiknt j offer sacrifice 



I 



CHAP.VllI. SHE, AND OTHEES, CONDEMNED TO DIE. 



r 

^H (for the welfare of the Emperor,' And I answered, 'I 
^m will not sacrifice.' 'Art thou a Cliristian?' said Hila- 
H riamia. I answered, ' I am a Christian.' And while 
B my father stood thereto persuade me, Hilarianus ordered 
f iim to be thrust down, and beaten with rods. And tlie 
misfortune of my father grieved me ; and I was as 
much grieved for his old age as if I had been scourged 
myseli He then passed sentence on us all, and con- 
demned us to the wild beasts ; and we went back in 
cheerfulness to the prison. And because I was accus- 
tomed to suckle my infant, and to keep it with me in 
the prison, I sent Pomponius the deacon to seek it from 
my father. But my father would not send it ; but, by 
the will of God, the child no longer desired the breast, 
and I suffered no uneasiness lest at such a time I 
should be afflicted by the sufferings of my child, or by 
pains in my breaste." 

Her visions now grow more frequent and vivid. The 
name of her brother Dinocrates suddenly occurred to 
' her in her prayers. He had died at seven years old, of 
a loathsome disease, no doubt without Christian baptism. 
She had a vision in which Dinocrates appeared in a 
place of profound darkness, where there was a pool of 
water, which be could not reach on accoimt of his small 
etatore. In a second vision, Dinocrates appeared again ; 
the pool rose up and touched him, and he drank a full 
goblet of the water. "And when he was Batisfied, he 
went away to play, as infants are wont, and I awoke ; 
and I knew that he was translated from the place of 
punishment," ' 

Again a few days, and the keeper of the prison, pro- 
foundly impressed by their conduct, and beginaing to 



i^mly n kinJ ol 



FELICITAS — MATERNAL hOVH. 



diBcem "the power of Grod within them," admittfl4<' 
many of the brethren to visit them, for mutual codboIa- 
tion. " And as the day of the games approached, my 
father entered, worn out with affliction, and began to 
pinck liis beard, and to throw himself down with his 
face npon the groand, and to wish that he could hasten 
his death, and to speak words which might have moved, 
any living creature. And I was grieved for the sorrows 
of his old age." The night before they were to be 
exposed in the arena, she dreamed that she was changed 
to a man ; fought and triumphed over a huge and ter- 
rible Egyptian gladiator ; and she put her foot npon his 
head, and she received the crown, and passed out of the 
Vivarian Gate, and knew that she had triumphed not 
over man but over the devil, 'fhe vision of Satunis, 
which he related for their consolation, was more splendid. 
He ascended iuto the realms of light, into a beautiful 
garden, and to a palace, the walls of which were light ; 
and there he was welcomed, not only by the emgels, 
but by all the friends who had preceded him in the 
glorious career. It is singular that, among the rest, 
he saw a bishop and a priest, between whom there 
had been some dissensions ; and while Peqjetua was 
conversing with them, tlie angels interfered and 
insisted on their perfect reconciliation. Some kind of 
blame seems to be attached to the Bishop Optatua, 
because some of his flock appeared as if they came from 
the factions of the circus, with the spirit of mortal 
strife not yet allayed. 

The narrative then proceeds to another instance of 
the triumph of faith over the strongest of human 
feelings, the love of a young motiier for her offspring. 
Felicitaa was in the eighth month of her pregnancy. 
She feared, and her friends shared in her apprehensJon, 



] 

u. ^ 



r 



THE MAKTYRS IN THE ARENA. 



tliat, on tliat account, her martyrdom might be delayed. 
They prayed together, and her travail came on. In her 
agony at that most painful period of delivery, she gave 
way to her sufferings. "How then," said one of the 
servants of the prison, "if you cannot endure these 
pains, will you endure exposure to the wild beasts?" 
She replied, " I bear now ray own sufferings ; then, 
there will be One within me who will hear my sufferings 
for me, because I shall suffer for his sake." She 
brought forth a girl, of whom a Christian sister took 
the charge. 

Perpetua maintained her calmness to the end. While 
they were treated with severity by a tribune, who feared 
lest they should be delivered from tho prison by 
enchantment, Perpetua remonstrated with a kind of 
roournfiil pleasantry, and said that, if iU-used, they 
would do no credit to the birthday of C^sar: the 
victims ought to be fattened for the sacrifice. But their 
language and demeanour were not always so calm and 
gentle ; the words of some became those of defiance — 
almost of insult ; and this is related with as much admi- 
ration as the more tranquil sublimity of the former 
incidents. To the people who gazed on them, in their 
importunate curiosity, at their agape, they said, " Is not 
to-morrow's spectacle enough to satiate your hate? To- 
day you look on us vrith friendly faces ; to-morrow you 
will be our deadly enemies. Mark well our coun- 
tenances, that you may know them again on the day of 
judgement" And to Hilarianus, on bis tribunal, they 
said, " Thou judgest us, but God will judge thee," At 
this language, the exasperated people demanded that 
they should be acoui^ed. When taken out to the exe- 
cution, they declined, and were permitted to decline, 
[' the proiane dress in which they were to be clad ; tho 



172 T1«K MARTraDOM. 



men, that of the priests of Satnrn ; the women, that 
tlie priestesses of Ceres. '' They oame forward in thi 
simple attire, Perpetua singing psalms. The men were 
exposed to leopards and bears ; and the women were 
hnng lip naked in nets, to be gored by a furious cow. 
But even the excited populace shrunk with horros 
at the spectacle of two young and delicate womi 
one recently recovered from eliildbirth, in this 
They were recalled by acclamation, and in mi 
brongfat forward again, clad in loose robes.' Perpel 
was tossed, her garment was rent ; but, more conscii 
of her wounded modesty than of jiain, she drew the robe 
over the part of her person which was exposed. She 
then calmly clasped up her hair, because it did not 
become a martyr to suffer with diaheTelled locks, the 
sign of sorrow. She then raised up the fainting and 
mortally wounded Felicitas, and, the cruelty of the 
populace being for a time appeased, they were permitted 
to retire. Perpetua seemed rapt in ecstasy, and, as if 
awaking from sleep, inquired when she was to be ex- 
posed to tlie beast. She could scarcely be made to 
beHeve what had taken place ; her last words tenderly 
admonished her brother to be steadfast in the faith. 
I may close the scene by intimating that all were 
speedily released from their sufferings, and entered iiita 
their glory. Perpetua guided with her own hand the 
merciful sword of the gladiator which relieved her from 
her agony. 

This African persecution, which laid the seeds of 
Aiture schisms and fatal feuds, la^ed till, at least, the 

^ Thia was an Hnuaunl cireum- 
atiuin ; and SMribod to the devil. 



1^^ 



I 



ChAP, VIIL CAflACAl J.A — ELAGABAI.OS. 173 

aecond year of Caracalla. From its close, except 
daring the ehort reign of Maximiu, Clirietianity 
enjoyed uninterrupted peace till tlie reign Geu. 
of Deciua." But during tiiia period occuired 
a remarkable event in tbe religious history of Rome. 
The pontiff of one of the wild forms of the Nature- 
worship of the East appeared in the city of Eome aa Em- 
peror. The ancient ritca of Baalpear, but little changed 
in the course of ages, intruded themselves into the 
SBnctuary of the Capitoline Jove, and offended at once 
the religious majesty aud the graver decency of Roman 
manners.^ Elagabalus derived his name from Bisgjitaia. 
the Syrian appellative of the 8uu; the had i.ii. aia.' 
been educated in the precincts of the temple ; and the 
Emperor of Rome was lost and absorbed in the priest of 
on effeminate superstition. The new rehgion did not 
Bteal in under the modest demeanour of a stranger, 
claiming the common rights of hospitality as the national 
faith of a subject people ; it entered with a public pomp, 
as though to supersede and eclipse the ancestral deities 
of Rome. The god Elagabalus was conveyed in solemn 
procession through the wondering provinces ; his sym- 
bols were received with all tbe honour of the Supreme 
Deity. The conical black stone, which was adored at 
Emesa, was, no doubt, in its origin, one of those obscene 
EQrmbols wliich appear in almost every form of the 
Oriental Nature- worship. The rudeness of ancient art 
had allowed it to remaiu in less offensive shapelessness ; 
and, not improbably, the original symbolic meaning had 
become obsolete. The Sun had become the visible type 

U 249 :— CaivcallB, |244; Doclufi, 249. 
|'311 ; Mncriuiu, 317 ; Elngibiiltui, • l-smpridii HdiDe:iibnlus. 
I ■;i8j Alemnder SaTermi, 2:^3 : Mali- Cnsaius, lib. Uiii. ; HowdiMi, T 
lttin»DdlheGaiiliw»,235-244;Phmp. \ 




174 REVEEKNCE FOR THE rALLADIOSt. Booa II. 

of Deity, and the object of adoration. The mysterious 
priueiple of generation, of which, in the primitive re- 
ligion of nature, he was the type and im^;e, gave place 
to the noblest object of homan idolatry — ^the least de- 
basing representative of the Great Supreme. The idol 
of Emesa entered Rome in solemn procession ; a mag- 
nificent temple was built upon the Palatine Hill ; a 
number of altars stood round, on which every day 
the moflt sumptuous offerings — hecatombs of oxen, 
countless sheep, the moat costly aromatics, the choicest 
wines — were offered. Streams of blood and wine were 
constantly 0owing down ; flhile the highest dignitaries 
of the Empire— commanders of legions, rulers of pro- 
vinces, the gravest senators, appeared as humble miniB- 
tera, clad in the loose and flowing robes and linen 
sandals of the East, among the lascivious dances and 
the wanton music of Oi'ieutal drums and cymbals. 
These degrading practices were the only way to civil' 
and mihtary preferment. The whole senato and eqai 
trian order stood around; and those who played ill 
part of adoration, or whose secret murmurs incautiously 
betrayed their devout indignation (for this insult to 
ancient religion of Kome awakened some sense ol' shai 
in the degenerate and servile aristocracy), were pot 
to death. The most sacred and patriotic sentiments 
cherished, above all the hallowed treasures of the city, 
the Palladium, the image of Minerva. Popular venera- 
tion worshipped, in distant awe, the unseen deity ; for 
profane eye might never behold the virgin image. The 
inviolability of the Koman dominion was inseparably 
connected with the uncontaminated sanctity of the PaJIa- 
dium. The Syrian declared his intention of wedding 
the ancient tutelary goddess to his foreign deity. The 
image was publicly brought forth ; exjwsed to the sully- 



lals, 
ivil^^H 



J 



r 



Chap. Vlll. WOaBHIP iH^ THE SUN IN HOME. 175 

ing gaze of the multitTide; solemnly wedded, and in- 
Bolently repudiated by tlie anworthy Btranger. A more 
appropriate bride was found in the kindied worship or 
Syrian deity, worshipped under the name of Kumi. 
Astarte in the Eaat, ia Carthage aa the Queen of 
Heaven — Venus Urania, aa translated into the mytho- 
logical language of the West. She was brought from 
Carthage. The whole city— the whole of Italy — was 
commanded to celebrate tlie bridal festival ; and the 
nuptials of the two foreign deities might appear to com- 
plete the triumph over the insulted divinities of Rome. 
Nothing was sacred to the voluptuous Syrian, He 
introduced the manners as well as the religion of the 
"East ; his rapid succession of wives imitated the poly- 
gamy of an Oriental despot ; and his vices not merely 
corrupted the morals, but insulted the most sacred 
feelings, of the people. He tore a vestal virgin from 
her sanctuary, to suffer his polluting embraces; he 
violated the sanctuary itself; attempted to make him- 
self master of the mystic coffer in which the socrred 
deposit was enshrined : it was said that the pious fraud 
of the priesthood deceived him with a counterfeit, 
which he dashed to pieces in his anger. It was openly 
asBerted that the worship of the Sun, under his name of 
El^abalua, was to supei-aede all other worship. If we 
may believe the biographies in the Augustan history, a 
more ambitiohs scheme of a imiversal religion 
had dawned upon the mind of the Emperor, umoi ■ 
The Jewish, the Samaritan, even the Chris- i 
tian, were to be fused and recast into one 
great system, of which tlie Snn was to be the central 
object of adoration,' At all events, the deities of Eome 




176 HUMAN SACRIFICES. 



1 



were actually degiaded before the pnblic gaae 
humble ministers of Elagabalus. Every year of 

Emperor's brief reign, the god was conveyed from bia 
Palatine temple to a suburban edifice of still more 
sumptuous maguificence. The statue passed in a car 
drawn by six horses. The Emperor of the world, his 
eyes stained with paint, ran and danced before it with 
antic gestures of adoration. The earth was strewn with 
gold dust ; flowers and chaplets were sciittored by the 
people, while tlie images of all the other gods, the 
splendid ornaments and vessels of all their temples, 
(vere carried, like the spoils of subject nations, in the 
annual ovation of the Phtenician deity. Even human 
sacrifices, and, if we may credit the monstrous fact, 
the most beautiful sons of the noblest families, werai 
offered on the altar of this Moloch of the East,' 

II impossible to suppose that the weak and crumbli 
edifice of Paganism was not shaken to its base by 
estraordinary revolution. An ancient religion eai 
tbos be inanlted without losing much of its majesty, 
hold upon the popular veueratiou is violently ' 
asunder. With ita more sincere votaries, the gen 
animosity to foreign, particularly to Eastern, rebgioi 
might be inflamed or deepened ; and Christianity mi^ 
share in some part of the detestation excited by the es?' 
cesses of a superstition eo opposite in its nature. Rub 
others whose I'liith had been shaken, and whose morab 
feelings revolted, by a religion whose essential eharacteit' 
was sensuality, and whose licentious tendency had been.'- 
so disgustingly illustrated by the unspeakable poUntioiUi; 

illug tranafei-endiun. ut omtuum cultu- I ad hoc puerii uobilibiiB tt deoorie ptTfl 
mrDm secrrtiim RelLi^ball Bucerdo- aniiivin llaliam pstri' 

I Csdit ft honuuiai hoetui, l«ti> ! dolor. Uioipnd. iJel 



■ ©Lil'. Vlll. AlEXANDEK SEVEEBS — MAMM^A. 



I 



r 

^■j.of its imperial patron, would hasten to embrace that 
^K purer faith which was most remote &om the religion of 
^1 .Elagabalus, 

^B From the policy of the Court, as well as the pure and 
^ amiable character of the successor of Elaga- iinana«t 
balua, the more offensive parts of this foreign E^^r. 
fluperstition disappeared with their imperial *-^'^ 
patron. But the old Eoman religion was not reinstated 
in its jealous and unmingled dignity. Alexander Se- 
verus had been bred in another school ; and the in- 
fluence which swayed him, during the earlier part at 
least of hia reign, was of a differeut character from that 
which had formed the mind of Elagabalns. It was the 
mother of Elagabalus who, however she might blush 
with shame at the impurities of her effeminate son, had 
consecrated him to the service of the deity in Emesa, 
The mother of Alexander Severus, the able, perhaps 
crafty and rapacious, Mammsea, had at least 
held intercourse with the Christiana of Syria. 
She had conversed with the celebrated Origen, and 
listened to hia exhortations, if without conversion, still not 
without respect. Alexander, though he had neither the 
religious education, the pontifical character, nor the 
dissolute manners of his predecessor, was a Syrian, 
wth no hereditary attacnment to the Homan foi-m of 
Paganism. He seems to have afi'ected a kiud of univer- 
Balism: he paid decent respect to the gods of the 
Capitol ; he held in honour the Egyptian worship, and 
enlarged the t«mples of Isis and Serapis. In his own 
palace, with respectful indifference, he enshrined, as it 
were, as hia household deities, the representatives of 
the different religious or theophilosophic systems whicli 
prevalent in the Koman Empire, — Orpheus, Abra- 
ham, Christ, and Apollonius of Tyana. The first of 
VOL. n. N 



I 



178 



THE ABKAHAMIC RELIGION. 






these represented the wisdom of the Mysteries, tl 
purified Nature- worship, which had laboured to elevati 
the popular mythology into a nohle and coherent allfl- 
gorism. It ia singular that Abraham, rattier than 
Moses, was placed at the head of Jndaisni : it is possible 
that the traditionary sanctity which attached to the first 
parent of the Jewish people, and of many of the Arab 
tribes, and which was afterwards emljodied in the Mo- 
hammedan Koran, was floating in the East, and would 
comprehend, as it were, the opinions not only of th^M^f 
Jews, hut of a much wider circle of the Syrian natireB.* ^B 
In Apollonius was centred the more modem Theurgy, 
the magic which commanded the intermediate spirits 
between the higher world and the world of man ; thq 
more spiritual polytheism which had released the subor- 
dinate deities irom their human form, and maintained 
them in constant intercourse with the sou! of man, 
Christianity, in the person of its founder, eveu where 
it did not command authority as a rehgion, had never- 
theless lost the character under which it had ao long 
and so unjustly laboured, of animosity to mankind. 
Though He was considered but as one of the sages who 
shared in the homage paid to their beneficent wisdom, 
the followers of Jesus had now lived down all the bitter 
hostility which liad so generally prevailed against them. 
The homage of Alexander Severus may he a fair test of 
the general sentiment of the more intelhgent Heathen h 
of his time.' It is clear that the exclnaive spirit of'.i^H 



k This might seem la cOD<inn tho 
theory of Sprenger as to the wideipre»d 
Abrahamic religioD, UoaoOioMD, allied 
KaDjIvre;, pnislent in AnbiK at the 
time of the coming of MohamiDed, 
Ldieii d«9 Hohiamwd, B. i, c, i. 



JaUoDiki wrote > veij ingcmom 
J to show that Aksnnder Strenis 
oonrerted to OiMMfiC Chriitlanily. 
IT. Compara H>70^ 



r 



I 
I 



Cbap, VIII. FJEST i;HRISHAN CHURCHES, 179 

Greek and Koman civilisation is broken dowo : it is 
not now Socratea or Plato, Epicurus or Zeuo, who are 
ooQsidered the sole guiding intellecta of human wie- 
dom. These Eastern barbarians are considered rivals, 
if not superior, to the philosophers of Greece. The 
world is betraying ita irresistible yearning towards a 
reliffim; and these are the first oyertures, aa it were. 
to more general submission. 

In the reign of Alexander Severus, at least, com- 
menced the great change in the outward ap- 
pearance of ChriBtiaaity. Christian bishops uioreiai'iun 

, , , , . ^ ofCbrlstl- 

were admitted, even at the court, in a recog- w^^ »< 
nised official character ; and Christian churches' 
began to rise in different parts of the empire, and to 
possess endowments in land." To the astonishment nl 
the Heathen, the religion of Christ had as yet appeared 
without temple or altar ; the religious assemblies had been 
held in privacy ; it was yet a domestic worship. Even 
the Jew had his public synagogue or his more secludwl 
proseucha ; but where the Christians met was indiciited 
by no separate and distinguished dwelling ; the cemetery 
of their dead, the sequestered grove, tho private cham- 
ber, contained their peaceful assemblies. Their privacy 
was as once their security and their danger. On the 
one hand, there was no well-known edifice in which the 
furiooB and excited rabble coald surprise the "rei 
general body of the Christians, and wreak its cunrehes. 
Vengeance by indiscriminate massacre ; on the other, the 






* Til1aaoDt,nsGibbo 

tigm Ihs dots of the eai 

dianbes to the reign of Aleinoder 

Sncnu ; Mr. Mojie to tliat of Gallic- 

Ivti*. Tbe ditTerEdce is ier7sL'ght,ui(i, 

T kU, the ciiBDge fkim a prirals 



building, set npart far a pAriiculiir 
nw, and a public one of no architto 
toral pnlenBions, miij hire bun alnwtt 
imperceptible, The pnsnge of Lain~ 
pridias appoirs coofJusive in favour «f 
Tillemont. 

H 1 



SILENT PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 



1 

lertpa 



jealousy of the Grovernment against all private i 
socifttioDs would be constaatly kept on the alert^i 
and a religioa without a temple was so inexplicable a 
problem to Pagan feeling, that it would strengthen and 
confirm all the vague imputations of Atheism, or of cri- 
minal licence in these mysterions meetings which seemed 
to shun the light of day. Their religious usages must 
now have become much better known, as Alexander 
borrowed their mode of publishing the names of those 
who were proposed for ordination, and established a 
similar proceeding with regard to all candidates for 
civil office ; and a piece of gronnd, in Eome, which was 
litigated by a company of victuallers, was awarded by 
the Emperor himself to the Christians, upon the prin- 
ciple that it was better that it should be devoted to th e 
ivorship of God in any form, than applied to a profaoo^l 
and unwortliy use.'" ^ 

These buildings were no doubt, as yet, of modest 
height and unpretending form ; but the religion was 
thus publicly recognised as one of the various forms of 
worship which the Government did not prohibit from ^ 
opening the gates of its temples to mankind. J^M 

The progress of Christianity during all this periodj -^B 
though silent, was uninterrupted. The miseries which 
wei-e gradually involving the whole Eoman Empire, 
from the conflicts and the tyranny of a rapid succession 
of masters — from taxation becoming more grinding and 
burdensome — and from the still multiplying inroads and 
expanding devastations of the barbarians, assisted its 
progress. Many took refuge in a religion which pro- 
mised beatitude in a future state of being, from the 
inevitable evils of this life. 



CBap. VIII. ITS INFLUENCE UN HEATHEKISM. 



r 

■ - But in no respect is the progress of Christianity 
W more evident and remarkable than in its influence on 
neatbenism itself. Though philosophy, which had long 
been the anttigoniat and most dangerous enemy inBoen™ ot 
of the popular religion, now made apparently ^^^^ 
common cause with it against the common '*°^ 
enemy, Christianity, yet there had been an unpereeived 
and amicable approximation between the two religions. 
Heathenism, as interpreted by philosophy, almost found 
fevour vrith some of the more moderate Christian apolo- 
gists; while, as we have seen, in the altered tone of 
»the controversy, the Christiana have rarely occasion to 
defend themselves against those horrible charges of 
licentiousness, incest, and cannibalism, which, till re- 
cently, their advocates had been constrained to notice. 
The -ChriatianB endeavoured to enlist the earlier philo- 
sophers in their cause ; they were scarcely content with 
BBserting that the nobler Grecian philosophy might be 
designed to prepare the human mind for the reception 
of Christianity; they were almost inclined to endow 

^ these sages with a kind of prophetic foreknowledge of 
tts more mysterious doctrines, " I have explained," says 
the Christian in Minuci us Felix, "the opinions of almost 
all the philosophers, whose most illuetrious glory it is 
that they have worshipped one God, though under 
various names ; so that one might suppose, cither that 
[.the Christians of the present day are philosophers, or 
t the philosophers of old were already Christians."" 
But these advances on the part of Christianity were 




CHAKGE IN HEATHENISM. 



more than met by Pagauism. The Heathen leligii 
whitfh prevailed at least among the more enlighteni 
Pagaus duriog thia period, and which, differently modi< 
tied, more fully developed, and, as we shall hereafter 
find, exalted still more from a philosophy into a religion, 
ctmnrain Julian endeavoured to reinstate as the esta- 
HMiEcnuio. blished faith, was almost as different from that 
of the older Greeka and Komana, or even that which 
prevailed at the pommencement of the Empire, as it 
was from Christianity. It worshipped in the same tem> 
pies ; it performed, to a certain extent, the same rites ;. 
it actually abrogated the local worship of no one of the 
multitudinous deitiee of Paganism, But over all this, 
which was the real religion, both in theory and practice, 
in the older times, had risen a kind of epeculatiTe 
Theism, to which the popular worship acknowledged ite 
liumble Bubordination. On the great elementary prin- 
ciple of Christianity, the Unity of the Supreme God, this 
approximation had long been sOently made. Celsua, in 
his celebrated controversy with Origen, asserts that this 
philosophical notion of tlie Deity is perfectly reconeileable 
with Paganism. " We also can place a Supreme Being 
above the world and above all human things, and approve 
and sympathise in whatever may be taught of a spiritnal 
rather than material adoration of the gods ; for, with 
the belief in the gods worsliipped in every land and by 
every people, harmonises the belief in a Primal Being, a 
Supreme God, who has given to every land its guardiany 
to every people its presiding deity. The unity of the 
Supreme Being, and the consequent unity of the design 
of the universe, remains, even if it be admitted that 
each people has its gods, whom it must worship in a 
peculiar manner, according to their peculiar character ; 
and the worship of all tliese different deities is reflected 






I 



i 
I 



r 



%*p.vni, PAGANISM BECIIMES SERIOUS, 183 

back to the Supreme God, who has appointed tbem, as 
it were. Jus delegates and representativeB. Those who 
iirgue that men ought not to serve many masters impute 
human weakness to God. God is not jealous of the 
adoration paid to subordinate deities ; He is superior in 
his natiu'e to degradation and insult. Beason iteelf might 
justify the belief in the inferior deities, which are the ob- 
jects of the established worship. For, since the Supreme 
God can only produce that which is immortal and im- 
perishable, the existence of mortal beiugs cannot be 
explained, unless we distinguish from him those iuferior 
deities, and assert them to be the creatures of mortal 
beings and of perishable things." " 

From this time, Paganism has changed not merely 
some of its fundamental teueta, but its general Pspmi™ 
character ; it has become serious, solemn, de- eerious. 
Tout In Luciaa, unbelief seemed to have readied its 
height, and as rapidly declined. Tlie witty satirist of 
Polytheism had, no doubt, many admirers ; he had no 
imitators. A reaction has takeu place; none of the 
distinguished statesmen of the third century boldly 
and ostentatiously, as in the times of the later Kepublic, 
display their contempt for religion. Epicureanism has 
lost, if not its partisans, its open advocate. The most 
eminent writers treat religion with decency if not with 
devout respect; no one is ambitious of passing for a 
deepiser of the gods. And with faith and piety broke 
forth all the aberrations of religious belief and devout 
feeling, wonder-working mysticism, and dreamy enthu- 
Biasm, in their various forms," 

This was the commencement of that new Platoniem 
which, from tliia time, exercised a supreme authority, to 




184 



APOLLOSICS OF TTASA — PORPHTRICS. 



1 



the estinction of the older forms of Grecian philowj 
and grew up into a dangerous antagonist of ChrietianiQr. 
It aspired to be a religion as well ae a philosophy, and 
gradually incorporated more and more of snch religiotu 
L-lemcntfl from the creeds of the Oriental phUoeopheis aa 
would harmonise nith its system. It was estravagan^ 
bat it was earnest ; wild, but serious. It created a kind 
AroninLiii of "f literature of its own. The Life of ApoUonios 
'^'" of Tyana was a grave romance, in which it 
embodied much of its Theurgy, its power of connecting 
the invisible with the visible world ; its wonder-working, 
throagh the intermediate daemons at its command, whi<^. 
bears possibly, but not clearly, an intentional, certainf 
a close, resemblance to the Gospels, It seized 
moulded to its purpose the poetry and philosophy 
older Greece. Such of the mythic legends as it eoi 
allegorise, it retained with every demonstration of 
verence ; the rest it either allowed quietly to fall into 
oblivion, or repudiated as lawless fictions of the poets. 
The manner in which poetrj' was transmuted into moral 
and religious allegory is shown in the treatise 
of Porphyrius on the Cave of the Kj-mpha ia< 
the Odyssey, The skill, as well as the dreamy mysticisno, 
with which this school of writers combined the dim tr*», 
ditions of the older philosophy and the esoteric doctrinal . 
of the Mysteries, to give the sanction of antiquity to their> 
own vague but attractive and fancifiil theories, api 
ufcofPriht '"^ ^^^ Life of Pythagoras, and in the work on,! 
""^ the Mysteries, by a somewhat later writar,. 

lamblichus. 
After all, however, this philosophic Paganism could 
Its TO* 
inferior in numbei 
to those of any one of the foreign religious introduced into 



™g, 
hiehi^H 



phiimnpbio exercise uo verv extensive influeni 

ropuur, taiies were probably fa 



MAXIMIN IRE TDIUCIAN. 



^M Cbip. V 

H the Greek and Eoman part of the empire; and its 

H^ Htrength perhaps consisted in the facility with which it 

coalesced with any one of those religions, or blended them 

up together in one somewhat discordant syncretism. The 

same man was philosopher, Hierophant at Samothrace or 

IEIeusis, and initiate in the rites of Cybele, of Serapis, 
or of Mithta. Of itself this scheme was far too abstract 
and metaphysical to extend beyond the schools of Alex- 
andria or of Athena. Though it prevailed afterwards 
in influencing the Heathen fanaticism of Jidian, it even- 
tually retarded but little the extinction of Heathenism. 
IB was merely a sort of refuge for the intellectual few — 
a self-complacent excuse, which enabled them to assert, 
as they supposed, their own mental superiority, while 
they were endeavouring to maintain or to revive the vul- 
gar superstition, which they themselves could not but in 
Beeret contemn. The moro refined it became, the less 
was it suited for common use, and the less it harmonised 
with the ordinary Paganism. Thus that which, in one 
respect, elevated it into a dangerous rival of Christi- 
anity, at the same time deprived it of its power. It 
had borrowed much from Christianity, or, at least, had 
been tacitly modified by its influence ; but it was the 
speculative rather than the practical part, that which 
constituted its sublimity rather than its popularity, in 
which it approximated to the Gospel. We shall encounter 
this newP^anism again before long, in its more perfect 
[ and developed form. 

The peace which Christianity enjoyed under the 
[ virtuous Severua was disturbed by the violent ,j„|,„i„_ 
Bccessiou of a Thraciao savage.' It was enough "■'^' 
[ to have shared in the favour of Alexander to incur the 



* Etiwb. Hi«. Em. tI. 3S, 



186 GORDIAJf — PHILIP— SECULAE GAMES. Book II. J 

brutal resentmeDt of M-Eisimm. The ChriBtian bishops ■ 
like all the other polite and Tirtuons courtiers of ia/im 
peaceful predecessor, were exposed to the suspicions find J 
the hatred of the rude aad warlike Maximin. Cbri» | 
tianity, however, suffered, though in a severer degree^ I 
the common lot of maukiiid. 

The eliort reign of Gordian was vmeTentfnl in ChristiaB I 
oordim, history. The Emperora, it has been jnstdy 
..D. aw-iM. ojjgeryeij^ ^ho were born in the Asiatic pro- 
vinces were, in g;eu6ral, the least unfriendly to Cbriati- 
anity. Their religion, whatever it might be, was less 
uncongenial to some of the forms of the new faith; it 
was a kind of Eclecticism of different Eastern reb'gionB, 
which, in general, was least inclined to intolerance : at 
any rate, it was uninfluenced by national pride, which 
was now become the main support of Roman Paganism. 
Pdiup. I'hilip, the Arabian,' is claimed by some ol 
tj). 114. jjjg earliest Christian writers as a convert to 
the Gospel. But the extraordinary splendour with which 
he celebrated the great religious rites of Home refutes 
at once this statement. Yet it might be fortunate 
that a sovereign of his miid sentiments towards the 
swuiM new faith filled the throne at a period when 
A.D.wi. the sectilar games, which commemorated the 
thousandth year of Rome, were celebrated with unex- 
ampled magnificence. The majesty, the eternity, of 
the empire were intimately connected with the dua 
performance of these solemnities. To their intermissicaii j 
after the reign of Diocletian, the Pagan historian T 
ascribes the decline of Boman greatness." The second I 
millennium of Rome commenced with no flattering, T 
signs ; the times were gloomy and menacing ; and thq I 



I 



I 



Chap. VIII. DECIDS. J87 

general and rigid absence of the Christians from theae 
sacred national creremonies, under a sterner or more 
bigoted Emperor, would scarcely have escaped the 
Beverest auimaiivei-sions of the Government, Even 
ander the present circumstances, the danger of popular 
tumult would be with difficulty avoided or restrained. 
Uid patriotiam and national pride incline the Homaa 
Christiana to make some sacrifice of their severer prin- 
ciples; to compromise for a time their rigid aversion to 
idolatry, which was thus connected with the peace and 
prosperity of the state? 

The persecution under Decioa, both in extent and 
violence, is the most nncontestad of those j,^^ 
which the ecclesiastical historians took pains '-»=**-*°'- 
to raise to the mystic number of the ten plagues of 
Egypt. It was almost the first measure of a reign 
which commenced in successful rebellion, and ended, 
after two years, in fatal defeat. The Gotha delivered 
the Christians from their most formidable oppressor; 
yet the Goths may have been the innocent authors of 
their calamities. The passions and the policy of the 
Emperor were concurrent motives for his hostility. The 
Christians were now a recognised body in the state ; 
however carefully they might avoid mingling in the 
political factions of the empire, they were necessarily of 
the party of the Emperor whose favour they had enjoyed. 
His enemies became their enemies, Masimin perse- 
cuted those who had appeared at the court of Alexander 
Severua; Decius hated the adherents, as he supposed 
the partisans, of tlie mui-dered Philip.' The Gothic war 
shook to the centre tlie etiifice of Roman greatness. 
Koman Paganism discovered in the relaxed morals of 




138 FABIAMDS SISHOP OF ROME. 

the people one of the causes of the decline of 
empire ; it demanded the revival of the cei 
CiaMoTifae This in discriminating feeling would mistal 
coiiDo!'™^ in the blindness of aversion and jealousy, 
great silent corrective of the popular morahty for one 
of the principal eauaea of depravation. The partial 
protection of a foreign religion by a foreign Emperor 
(now that Christianity had begun to erect temple against 
temple, altar against altar, and the Christian bishop met 
the pontiff on equal terms around the imperial throne) 
would be considered among the moat flagrant depar- 
tures from the sound wisdom of ancient Rome. The 
deseendant of the Decii, however his obscure FaononiaK: 
birth might cast a doubt on his hereditary dignity, 
called upon to restore the religion as well as the mai^ 
ners of Eome to their ancient austere purity ; to vindi- 
cate their iDsulted supremacy from the rivalship of aa 
Asiatic and modem superstition. The peraecution of 
IJecius endeavoured to purily Eome itself from tlid' 
presence of these degenerate enemies to her prosperity, 
FaMsnni K- ^^^ bishop Fabiauus was one of the first vic- 
ii»po(Kon,6 ijjjjg qJ- ijjg resentment ; " and the Christians 
did not venture to raise a successor to the obnoxious 
office during the brief reign of Decius. 

The example of the capital was followed in many d 
the great cities of the empire. In the turbulent anS 
sanguinary Alexandria, the zeal of the populace outran 
that of the Emperor, and had already commenced a. 
violent local persecution.* Antioch lamented the loSB 
of her bishop, Babylas, whose relics were afterwards 

■ The Cbv. lie BobA bis round the I bis aog^dt; ditc 
nnme of Fobianus (I have read it my- bonis have eiplon 
lelf), the fiirt authentic martjT Pope Culiicc 

in the real cemetery of CaJlistas, whlcta I ' Eussb. vl 40, 41. 



> 
i- 

a. 

I 

I 



»dCa*p. Vlil, CnRISTIAK EHTHDSIASH LESS STBOKO. 



H 'Worshipped in what was still the voluptuous grove of 
■ Daphne.'' Origen was exposed to cruel torments, but 
escaped with his life. But Christian enthusiasm, by 
being disseminated over a wider sphere, had 
naturally lost some of its first vigour. With Bsmof 

tnaany, it was now a hereditary faith, not em- mitjiia 
braced by the ardent conviction of the indivi- """^ 
dual, but instilled into the mind, with more or less 
depth, by Christian education. The Christian writers 
now begin to deplore the failure of genuine Christian 
principles, and to trace the Divine wrath in the afBiction 

tof the Charches. Instead of presenting, as it were, a 
narrow, but firm and unbroken, front to the enemy, a 
mnch more numerous, but less united and less unifonnly 
resolute, force now marched under the banner of Chris- 
tianity, Instead of the serene fortitude with which they 
formerly appeared before the tribunal of the ma^trate, 
many now stood pale, trembling, and reluctant, neither 
ready to submit to the idolatrous ceremony of sacrifice, 
nor prepared to resist even unto death. The fiery zeal 
of the African Churches appears to have been most 
subject to these paroxysms of weakness;' it was there 
that the fallen (the Lapsi) formed a distinct and too 
numerous class, whose readmission into tlie privdeges of 
the Faithful became a subject of fierce controversy;" 
and the Libellatici, who had purchased a billet of immu- 
nity from the rapacious Government, formed another 
party, and were held in no less disrepute by those who, 
in the older spirit of the failh, had been ready or eager 
to obtain the crown of martyrdom. 




r 



190 CODNCIl OF CARTHAGE — VALEKIAN. BJOiltM 

Carthage was disgraced by the criminal weakness 
even of some among lier clergy. A Council was held 
to decide this difScult point ; and the decisions of the 
Council were tempered by moderation and humanity. 
None were irrevocably and for ever excluded from the 
pale of salvation ; but tliey were absolved, according to 
the degree of criminality which might attach to their 
apostasy. Those who had sacrificed — the most awful 
and scarcely expiable offence I — required long yeara of 
penitence and humility ; those who had only weakly 
compromised their faith, by obtaining oi purchasing 
billets of exemption from persecution, were admitted tOj 
shorter and easier terms of reconcihatioii.** 

Valerian, who ascended the throne three years s 
the death of Decius, had been chosen by Deciua 1 
revive, in bia person, the ancient and honourable offl 



* The horror with which those who 
had BBcrifi<»d werebehdd h; the more 
rigorouE of thtir hr^reu amy he «ui- 
celvoi from the euergetii: laoguage of 
CTpiian: " Noune quando ad Cnpilo- 
lium aponlc rentuin cat, qnando ultro 

eit, labnTit gressiia, oiligiFit sspectuh, 

mnt? Sonne sensus obilupuit, lingua 
hvsit, wmio defocit F . , Ncone aia 
Uki, qno moritums accessit, rogiu illi 
fuit? Mounediaboli altarequod Tcetore 
tetro fumare el redolere connpeierat, 




itig was Uie m«t ertraordinar^ 
reace, of which CTprian dtclares hinnelf 
to hare Wn an eyewitsegs. Ad infiut 
had been abHncIoaed b; ita paraitsia 
their flight. The niirse carried it to 
the magirtrate. Being loo yonng to 
eat meat, hread, Bt«eped 
in HCriRce, was forced into ita Bioat^, 
Immediatelj that 
Christiana, the child, which raold 
speelE, commaniciiled the seme 
guilt bj cries and conmliiTe 
[ions. It rettued the sacnimeat (thai 
admiaialered to infknts), closed \ts lipflf 
and arertei ita face. The deacon ibned 
it into itn muuth. The «niKcral«d 



i 



MACEIAJJTJS THE MAGICIAN. 



^B of Censor; and tbe general admiration of his virtnes 
■ liad ratified the appointment of the Emperor. Tsirrion. 
It was no discredit to Christianity that the *■"* ""■ 
commencement of the Censor's reign, who may be sup- 
posed to have examined with more than ordinary earn 
its influence on the public morals, was favourable to 
their cause. Their security was restored, and, for a 
short time, persecution ceased. The change which tooli 
place in the sentiments and conduct of Valerian is 
attributed to the influence of a man deeply versed in 
magical arta." Tho censor was enslaved by a supersti- 

»tion which the older Eomans would have beheld witli 
little less abhorrenco than Christianity itself. It must 
be admitted, that Christian superstition was too much 
inclined to encroach upon the province of Oriental 
magic; and the more the older Polytheism decayed, 
tha more closely it allied itself with tliia powerful agent 
in commanding the fears of man. With all classes, 
from the Emperor who employed their mystic arts to 
inquire into the secrets of futurity, to the peasant who 
shuddered at their power, the adepts in those dark 
and forbidden sciences were probably more influential 
i^ponents of Chiistianity than the ancient and established 
priesthood. 

MacrianUB is reported to have obtained such complete 
! mastery over the mind of Valerian, as to induce him to 
j engage in the most guilty mysteries of magic to trace 
I the fete of tbe empire in the entrails of human victims. 
[ Tlie edict against the Christians, suggested by 
I tiie animosity of Macrianus, allowed the eom- 
I Inanity to remain in imdisturbed impunity ; but it 
I Bubjected to the penalty of death all the bishops who 



192 



CYPRIAN. BISHOP OF CAKTUAUE 



« 



refused to conform, aud confiscated all the endowmi 
of their churches into the public treasury. 

The dignity of one of its vietima conferred a meli 
C3mitn. choly celebrity on the persecution of Vali 
cuumge. The most distinguished prelate at this 
in Western Christendom was Cyprian, Bishop of Ca^■ 
thage. If not of honourable birth or descent, for this 
appears doubtful, his abilities had nused him to eminence 
and wealth. He taught rhetoric at Carthage, 
either by this honourable occupation or by some othev{ 
means, had acquired an ample fortune. Cyprian 
advanced in life when he embraced the doctrines ot^ 
Christianity ; but he entered on his new career, if wilfi. 
the mature reason of age, with the ardour and freshneSi 
of youth. His wealth was devoted to pious and cha- 
ritable uses ; his rhetorical studies, if they gave clear- 
ness and order to his language, by no means chilled its 
fervour or constrained its vehemence. He had the ^M 
African temperament of character, and, if it may be sft'^l 
Baid, of style ; the warmth, the power of communicating ^^ 
its impassioned sentiments to the reader; perhaps not 
all the pregnant conciseness, nor all the enet^, of 
Tertullian, but, at the same time, httle of his rudeness 
and obscurity. Cyprian passed rapidly through the 
steps of Christian initiation, almost as rapidly through 
the first gradations of the clerical order. On the vacancy 
of the bishopric of Carthage, his reluctant diffidence was 
overpowered by the acclamations of the whole city, who 
environed his house, and compelled him by their friendly 
violence to assume the distinguished and, it might b^ 
dangerous office. He yielded, to preserve the peace of 
Catthage.^ 




EPISCOPATE OF C1[PRIAK. 



^B Cyprian entertained tlie loftiest notions of the epi- 
^^KOpal authority. The severe and inviolable unity of tht' 
outward and visible Church appeared to him an integral 
part of Christianity ; and the rigid discipline enforced 
by the episcopal order the only means of maintaining 
that unity. The pale which enclosed tlie Church from 
the rest of mankind was drawn with the most relentless, 
precision. The Church was the ark, and all without it 

I,Trere left to perish in the unsparing deluge.' The growth 
fif heretical discord or disobedience was inexpiable, even 
J)y the blood of the transgressor. He might bear the 
-^mes with equanimity ; he might submit to be torn to 
pieces by wild beasts — there could be no martyr wit/i/»it 
the Church. Tortures and death bestowed not the crown 
of immortality ; they were but the just retribution of 
treason to the faith.' 

The fearful times which arose during his episcopate 
tried these stem and lofty principles, as the questions 
which arose out of the Decian persecutions did his 
judgement and moderation. Cyprian, who embraced 
without hesitation the severer opinion with regard to 
the rebaptizing heretics, notwithstanding his awful 
horror of the guilt of apostasy, acquiesced in, if he did 
H' pot dictate, the more temperate decisions of the Car- 



1 
I 



• Si potnit ersderB quiaquam, qui 


teritne. Be Unit. Ecda. 


cotia aruam Noa fuit, et qui Bjtra ec- 


Et tamen neqiie hoc baptisma (san- 


denam ib™ fnBxit, evadit. Cypriao, 


guinis) heretico prodest, quamvis 


de Unitate Ecdesite. 


Cliriatmn confessns, et eitia cccleaiam 


' EsK maJljr non potest, qui in 


fuerit (»:ini9. Epiel. liiiii. 


ecded&DODest. 


■'Though 1 give my body to be 


Ardeant licet Saiamvi et ignibua Ira- 


burned, and have not charity, it pro- 


dia, Tel objecU bratiia animaa «uaa po- 


Uteth me nothing." 1 Cor. liii. 3.— 


jaat, DDD erit ills 6dei corana, eed 


Ifl there no diflerence between the ipirit 


ygaa perfidioa, nee religiowe virtutis 


of St. Paul and of Cyprian? 






r TOL. n. 


O 



194 



OUTCRY AGAINST CYPRIAN, 



thaginian synod concerning those wliose weakness had 
Betrayed them either into the public denial, or a timid 
diBsiniutatiou, of the faith. 

The first rumour of persecution designated the Bi 
of Carthage for itsrictim, "Cyprian to the lionsl' 
the loud and unanimous outerj' of infuriated Paganism. 
Cyprian withdrew from the storm, not, as his subsequent 
courageous behaviour showed, irom timidity ; but neither 
approving that useless and sometimes ostentatious pro- 
digality of life, which betrayed more pride than huTnble 
acquiescence in the Divine will ; possibly from the truly 
charitable reluctance to tempt his enemies to an irre- 
trievable crime. He withdrew to some quiet and secure 
retreat, from which he wrote animating and consolatory 
letti5rfl to those who had not been so prudent or so 
fortunate as to escape the persecution. His letters 
describe the rolentlesa barbarity with which the Chrift- 
tians were treated ; they are an autheutic and eoa1 
porary sfafemeut of the sufferings which the Ch: 
endured in defence of their faith. If highly coloi 
by the generous and tender sympathies or by the ardenf 
eloquence of Cj-prian, they have nothing of legendary 
"xtravagance. The utmost art was exercised to render 
Vodily suffering more acute and intense ; it 
tinned strife between the obstinacy and inventive crueh 
of the tormentor, and the patience of the victim.*] 
During the reign of DeciuB, which appears to have ' 



( Tokrictis osqiie ad eoruunmis- 
inain gloriie duritainuin <]Ucstioaem, 
a oesaUtU lupplioiis, mi robis poliu* 




QpngDahilem EAem tt 

tuit ravien! diu plngn repetita 

rig ruplA com page vjuccrum ; tai'qucD' 

tor Id aerrii Del jam Doa merabn, 

Kd Tuloera. CygviBn, Rpat. viii. ad 

UartTrefl. Compare tlput. \ " 



■ Chap vm. PLAGUE IN CARTHAGE. 1<J5 H 

H one continned persecution, Cyjirian stood aloof in his ^M 

W andisturbed retreat. He returned to Carthage probaUy ^M 

at iJie commencement of Valerian's reign, and had a ^M 

splendid opportunity of Cliristian revenge ujion tlie city ^| 

which had thirsted for his blood. A plague n^^i^ ^1 

ravaged the whole Roman world, and its most ^'^^«- 
destructive violence thinned the streets of Carthage. It 
Vflut spreading on from house to house, especially those 
of the lower orders, with awful regularity. The streets ^M 

were strewn with the bodies of the dead and the dying, ^M 

who vainly appealed to the laws of nature and humanity ^M 

for that assistance of which those who passed them by ^M 

might soon stand in need. General distrust spread I 

through society. Men avoided or exjjosed their nearest I 

relatives; as if, by excluding the dying, they conld H 

exclude death." No one, says the Deacon Pontius, H 

writing of the population of Carthage in general, did as V 

ha would be done by. Cyprian addressed the Christians 
in the most earnest and effective language. He 
exhorted them to show the sincerity of their cmdud'oi 
belief in the doctrines of their Master, not by ineciirn- 
eonfining their acts of kindliness to their own 
brotherhood, but by extending them indiscriminately to 
their enemies. The city was divided into districts ; offices 
were assigned to all the Christians; the rich lavished 
their wealth, the poor their personal exertions; and 
men, perhaps just emerged from the mine or the prison, 
witii the scars or mntilations of their recent tortures 
Upon their bodies, were seen exposing their lives, if 
I possible, to a more honourable martyrdom; as before 
pthe voluntary victims of Christian faith, so now of 



' Pontim, in Vita Cypriimi. Ho 
■;i«re aama, fagcre, vitor^ contagiun 
I BUDS imiw ; qoaai cam il 



f/as 

pel 
cri- ^ 



196 CrPaiAN'S EETEEAT — HIS EETUEN. BwxH 

Christian charity. Tet the Heathen party, instead of 
being subdued, persisted in attributing this terrible 
scourge to the impiety of tlie Chriatians, which provoked 
the angry gods ; nor can we wonder if the zeal of Cyprian 
retorted the ailment, and traced rather the retributira 
juaticQ of the Almiglity to the wanton persecntii 
inflicted on the unoffending Christians, 

Cyprian did not again withdraw on the contmence^ 
Cyprtan'i ment of the Valerian persecution. He was 
"'™''- summoned before the proconsul, wlio com- 
mimicated hia instructions from the Emperor, to compel 
all those who professed foreign religions to offer Baca- 
fice. Cyprian refused, with tranquil determination, 
was banished from Carthage. He remained in 
pleasant retreat rather than place of exile, in the small 
town of Ceribis, near the sea-shore, in a spot shaded 
with verdant grorea, and with a clear and healthfii] 
stream of water. It was provided with every comfort, 
and even luxury, in which the austere nature of Cyprian 
would permit itself to indulge.' But when his hour 
came, tlie tranquil and collected dignity of Cyprian in 
no respect fell below his lofty principles. 

On the accession of a new proconsul, Galeriua Mi 
Bemm lo uius, Cyprian was either recalled or permitted 
'^""'•*°- to return from his exile. He resided in Ms 
own gardens, from whence he received a summons to 
appear before the proconsul. He would not listen to 
the earnest solicitations of his friends, who entreated 
him ^ain to consult his safety by withdrawing to some 
place of concealment. His trial was postponed for a 

I " If," sap Pontius, who visited I angela which fed Elijah and Duiiel 

his muter Id faia retirement, " iastesd wauld hare mfnietared to the hidf 

of thb aooDf sod ngreenble ipnt. it had Cfpriui," 
a uvi rocky (olitode, the | 



r 



t 



Chip. Vui. HIS TBIAL AXD COKDEirxATloN. 197 

day ; he was treated, while in cuBtody, with respect and 
delicacy. But the intelligence of the apprehen- 
sion of Cyprian drew together the whole city ; the 
Heathen, eager to behold the spectacle of his martyr- 
dom, the Christians, to watch in their afiectiooate zeul 
at the doors of hia prison. In the morning, he had to 
walk some distance, and was violently heated by the 
exertion. A Christian eoldier offered to procure him 
dry linen, apparently from mere courtesy, but, in 
reality, to obtain such precious relics, steeped in the 
"bloody sweat" of the martyr. Cyprian intimated 
that it was useless to seek remedy for inconveniences 
which, perhaps, would that day pass away for ever. 
After a short delay, the proconsul appeared. The ex- 
amination was brief- — " Art tliou Thaaciiis Cyprian, the 
bishop of so many impious men ? The most sacred Em- 
peror commands thee to sacrifice." Cyprian answered, 
"I will not sacrifice." "Consider well," rejoined the 
procoi^ul, " Execute your orders," answered Cyprian ; 
" the case admits of no consideration." 

Galerius consulted with his Council, and then re- 
luctantly ^ delivered his sentence. " Thascins Cyprian, 
thou hast lived long in thy impiety, and assembled 
around thee many men involved in the same wicked 
conspiracy. Thou hast shown thyself an enemy alike 
to the gods and the laws of the empire ; the pious 
and sacred Emperors have in vain endeavoured to recall 
thee to the worsliip of thy ancestors. Since, then, thon 
hast been the chief author and leader of these most 
guilty practices, thou sbalt be an example to those 
whom thon hast deluded to thy unlawful assembiieg. 




DEATH OF DECICS ANU HIS SOIT. 



»c!^H 



Thoa must expiate thy crime with thy blood." Cypriaa 
said, "God be thanked."" The Bishop of Carthage 
was carried into a neighbouring field and beheadedb^ 
He maintained his serene composure to the last. It 
remarkable that but a few days afterwards the procoi 
died. Though he bad been in bad health, this circim> 
stance was not likely to be lost ujwn the Christians. 

Everywhere, indeed, the public mind was no doubt 
strongly impressed with the remarkable fact, which 
MiwwbiB the Christians would lose no opportunity of 
SS!Ul:Sim!of enforcing on the awe-struck attention, that 
LiirisiimiJir. jjjgjj. enemies appeared to be the enemies of 
Heafen. An early and a fearful fate appeared to be 
the inevitable lot of the persecutors of Christianity. 
Their profound and earnest conviction that the hand of 
Diviue Providence was perpetually and visibly inti 
posing in the affairs of men would not be eo deepljrj 
imbued with the spirit of their Divine Master, as toj 
suppress the language of triumph, or even of vengeane^^ 
when the enemies of their God and of themselves eithi 
suffered defeat and death, or, worse than an bononrabli 

L, a cruel and insulting captivity. The death 
Decius, according to the Pagan account, bad 
worthy of the old Republic. He was environed by the 
Goths ; his son was killed by an arrow ; he cried aload, 
that the loss of a single soldier was nothing to the glory 
of the empire ; be renewed the battle, and fell valiantly. 
The Christian writers strip away all the more ennobl 



uogv 
Ldedb^ 

insid^l 




Tigulsritj of tha whole proceediBg^ 
Compim the Lift of CTpriui by tha 
Ueocoa Pontius ; tha AnU, in Raiout, 
p. 2ie ; Care's Livet of the Aportlo, 
if Sot Bit. " C jprian." 



I 



CBXe. VIU. GALLIENUS— AUItELLAN. 199 

incidents. According to tlieir account, having been 
decoyed by the enemy, or misled by a, treacherous 
friend, into a marsh where he could neither fight nor 
fly, he perished tamely, and his imburied body was left 
to the beaste and carrion fowls. ■" The captivity of Va- 
lerian, the mystery which hnng over hia death, allowed 
ample scope to the imagination of those whose national 
hatred of the barbarians would attribute the most un- 
manly ferocity to the Persian conqueror, and of those 
who would consider their God exalted by the most cruel 
and debasing sufferings inflicted on the oppressor of tlie 
Cliurch. Valerian, it was said, was forced to bend his 
back that the proud conqueror might mount his horse, 
as fiom a footstool ; his skin was flayed off {according 
to one more modern account, while he was alive), stuffed, 
and exposed to the mockery of the Persian rabble. 

The luxurioufl and versatile Gallienns restored peace 
to the Chuich. The edict of Valerian was oiiiimai 
rescinded; the bishops resumed their pubhc i.a. ibd. 
functions; the buildings were restored, and their pro- 
perty, which had i)eeu confiscated by the state, restored 
to the rightful owners," 

The last transient collision of Christianity with the 
Grovemment before its final conflict under Dio- ion-'iui. 
cletian, took place, or was at least threatened, *-»-'"'^"'' 
during the administration of the great Aurelian. The 
reign of Aurelian, occupied by warlike campaigns in 
every part of the world, left little time for attention to 
the internal police, or the religious interests, of the 
empire. The mother of Aurelian was priestess of the 
Sou at Sirmium, and the Emperor built a temple to 

B OrsL Connaat. apud Gu>«b. c niv. Lnclont. ie Mori. Perans. 



200 PAUL Of SAMOSATA. BOOK^" 

that deity, his tutelary god, at Eome. But the dan- 
gerous wars of Aurelian required the concurrent aid of 
all the deities who took an interest in the fate of Borne. 
The sacred ceremony of consulting the Sibylline books, 
in whose secret and mysterious kaves were written the 
destinies of Rome, took place at his command. The 
severe Emperor reproaches the senate for their want of 
faith in these mystic volumes, or of zeal in the public 
service, as though they bad been infected by the printj 
ciples of Christianity." I 

But there were no hostile measures taken against^ 
Christianity in the early part of his reign ; and he wae 
summoned to take upon bimself the extraordinary ofBce 
of arbiter in a Christian controversy. A new empire 
seemed rising in the East, under the warlike Queen of 
Palmyra. Zenobia extended her protection, with politic 
iadifference, to Jew, to Pagan, and to Christian. It 
might also appear that a kindred spiritual ambiticH^ I 
P,,^ „i animated her favourite, Paul of Samosata, tb^fl 
samowm. Bigijop of Antioch, and tliat he aspired to fouoc 
a new rehgion, adapted to the kingdom of Palmyra, hjM 
blending together the elements of Paganism, of Jm 
daism, and of Christianity. Ambitious, dissolute, andfl 
rapacious, according to the representation of his adveroB 
saries, Paul of Samosata had been advanced to the^J 
important see of Antioch ; but the zealous vigilance^ 
of the neighbouring bishops soon ihscovered that Fanll 
held opinions, as to the mere human nature of thftv 
Saviour, more nearly allied to Judaism than to thai 
Christiau creed. The pride, the wealth, the state < 
Paul, no lees offended the feehngs, and put to shamn 

e of the beet, ul lenal man J 



POMP OF PAUL. 



» 



Vcbap. VIII. 

B the more modest demeanour and the humbler pretensiona 
■ of former prelates. Ho hsd obtained, either &om the 
Boman antboritiea or from Zenobia, a civil magistracy, 
and prided himself more on hia title of ducenary than 
of Christian bishop. He passed through the streets 
environed by guards, and preceded and followed by 
ijDultitudes of attendants and supplicants, whose peti- 
.tiona he received and read with the stately bearing of 
a public officer rather than the affability of a prelate. 
His conduct in the ecclesiastical assemblies was equally 
overbearing : he sat on a throne, and, while he in- 

Ididged himself in every kind of theatric gesture, re- 
lented the silence of those who did not receive him 
.with applause, or pay homage to hie dignity. His 
magnificence disturbed the modest solemnity of the 
ordinary worship. Instead of the simpler music of the 
Cliureh, the hymns, in which the voices of the worship- 
pCTS mingled in fervent, if less harmonious, unison, Paul 
organised a regular choir, in which the soft tones of 
female voices, in their more melting and artificial ca- 
dences, sometimes called to mind the voluptuous rites 
of Paganism, and could not be heard without shuddering 
by those accustomed to the more unadorned ritual." 

»Tbe Hosannafi, sometimes introduced as a kind of salu- 
tation to the bishop, became, it was said, the chief part 
■of the service, which was rather to the glory of Paul 
than of the Lord. This introduction of a new and 
effeminate ceremonial would of itself, with its rigid 
adversaries, have formed a ground for the charge of 
dissolute morals, against which may be fairly urged 
the avo^ved patronage of the severe Zenobia.' But the 




202 Jj£GRADATIOK OF PAUL, 



poinp of Paul's expenditure did not interfere with 
iiccumulation of considerable wealth, which he extorted 
from the timid zeal of his partisans, and, it was said, by 
the venal administration of the judicial authority of hia 
episcopate, perhaps of his civil magistracy. But Paul 
by no means stood alone ; he had a powerful party 
among the ecclesiastical body, the chorepiscopi of the 
country districte, and the presbyters of the city. He 
set at defiance the synod of bishops, who pronomiGt 
a solemn sentence of excommunication ; ■■ and, seci 
under the protection of the Queen of Palmyra, if 
ambition should succeed in wresting Syria, with 
noble capital, from the power of Rome, and in 
taining her strong and inflnential position between 
conflicting powers of Persia and the Empire, Panl 
might hope to share in her triumph, and establish his 
degenerate but splendid form of Chriatianity in the 
very seat of its primitive Apostolic foundation. Panl 
had staked his success upon that of his warlike pa- 
troness; and on the fall of Zenobia, the bishops ap- 
pealed to Aurelian to espel the rebel against their 
authority, and the partisan of the Palmyrenes, who had 
taken arms against the majesty of the empire, from his 
episcopal dignity at Antioch. Anrelian did not alto- 
gether refuse to interfere in this unprecedented cause, 
but, with laudable impartiality, declined any actual 
cognisance of the affair, jand transferred the sentence 
from the personal enemies of Paul, the Bishops of Syria, 
to those of Rome and Italy. By their sentence, Paul 
was degraded Irom his episcopate. 

The sentiments of Aurelian changed towards Chrieti- 

' See the HStenra in EuEebius, Tii. 30, lad in RoDth. Rellquiic Sacnc, ii. 



1 



3H4P. VIII. CHAKACTER OF AUKELIAN. 203 

anity near the close of his reign. The severity of his 
character, reckless of human blood, would not, if com- 
mitted in the strife, have hesitated at any measures 
to subdue the rebellious spirit of his subjects. Sangui- 
nary edicts were issued, though his death prevented 
their general promulgation ; and in the fate of Aurelian 
the Christians discovered another instance of the Divine 
vengeance, which appeared to mark their enemies with 
the sign of inevitable and appalling destruction. 

Till the' reign of Diocletian, the Churches reposed in 
nudisturbed but enervating security. 



rEACE OF THE CHEISTUK3. 



OaAPTER IX- 

The PersecutioD under DiocUtiiw. 



The final coatest between Paganism and Chrii 
drew near. Almost three hundred years hod elapa 
since the divine Author of the new religion had entered 
upon his mortal life in a small village in Pales- 
tine;* and now, Laving gained so powerfnl en 
ascendancy over the civilised world, the Gospel was to 
uudei^o its last and most trying ordeal, before it shoold 
assume the reins of empire, and become the established 
religion of the Roman world. It was to sustain the 
deliberate and systematic attack of the temporal autho 
rity, arming, iu almost every part of the empire, in 
PHMofUie defence of tJie ancient Polytheism. At this 
'''™"'™- crisis, it is important to survey the state of 
Christianity, as well as the character of the sovereign 
and of the government, which made this ultimate and 
most vigorous attempt to suppress the triumphant pro- 
gress of the new faith. 

The last fifty years, with a short interval of menaced, 
probably of actual, persecution, during the reign of 
Aurelian, had passed in peace and security. The 
Christiims had become not merely a public, but im 
imposing and inHuential, body ; their separate ex- 
istence had been recognised by the law of Gallieana; 
their churches had arisen in mo»t of the cities of 
the empire ; as yet, probably, with no great pre- 

1, 2S4. The commencemeDt of th« pn* 



L GiAP. n. eelazation of cheistian morals. 



H QIAP. 

H tensions to architectural grandeur, though no doubt 
I ornamented by the liberality of the worshippers, and 
furnished with yestmenta, and with chalices, lamps, and 
chandeliers of silver. The number of these buildings 
was constantly on the increase, or the crowding multi- 
tudes of proselytes demanded the extension of the 
narrow and Jiumble walls. The Christiana no longer 
declined, or refused to aspire to, the honours of the 

>Htate. They filled offices of distinction, and even of 
Bupreme authority, in the provinces, and in the army ; 
they were exempted, either by tacit connivance or direct 
indulgence, from the accustomed sacrifices, progniBaDf 
Among the more immediate attendants on the ctn"''^"?- 
Emperor, two or three openly professed the Christian 
faith. Prisca the wife, and Valeria, the daughter of 
Diocletian and wife of Galerius, were suspected, if not 
avowed, partakers of the Chriatiau mysteries," If it be 
impossible to form the moat remote approximation to 
their relative numbers with that of the Pagan popu- 
lation, it is equally erroneous to estimate their strength 
and infl.uence by numerical calculation. All political 
changes are wrought by a compact, organised, and dis- 
cipHned minority. The mass of mankind are shown by 
experience, and appear fated by the constitution of our 
nature, to follow any vigorous impulse from a deter- 
mined and incessantly aggressive few. 

The long period of prosperity had produced in the 
Christian community its usual consequences, ^^ ^^ 

some relaxation of morals: but Christian charity ^^^^ 
had probably suffered more than Christian ufcbhtttan 
purity. The more flourishing and extensive 
the community, the mora the pride, perhaps the 



I 




20C 



CH.1BACTBK OF DIOCLETIAN. 



temporal advantages, of Buperiority, predominated ovtii 
tho Christian motives which led men to aspire to t" ' 
supreme functions in the Church. Sacerdotal dom 
natioa began to exercise its awful powers, and T 
bishop to assume the language and the authority of t 
vit-egereut of God. Feuds distracted the bosom of the 
peaceful communities, and dispntes sometimes proceeded 
to open violence- Such is the melanclioly confession of 
the Christians themselves, who, according to the spiif " 
of the times, considered the dangers and the afSictica 
to which they were exposed in the light of divine judgl 
ments ; and deplored, perhaps with something of t' 
exaggeration of religious humiliation, the visible dec 
of holiness and peace,'' But it b the strongest proof a 
the firm hold of a party, whether religious or political 
upon llie public mind, when it may offend with impunity 
agaiioet its own primary principles. That which at one 
time is a sign of incurable weakness or approaching Ais- 
solution, at another seems but the excess of healthful 
energy and the evidence of unbroken vigour. 

The acta of Diocletian are the only trustworthy h " 
of his character. The son of a slave, or, at all e 

bom of obscure and doubtlul parentage, ' 
Wocfcu™. ,,, , ■ ^ _ f --^ > 

conld force his way to sovereign jiower, t 
and accomplish the design of reconstructing the wbd 
empire, must have been a man, at least, of stR 
political courage, of profound, if not always wise E 
statesmanlike views. In the pereon of Diocletian, 1 
Emperor of Rome became an Oriental monarch. 
old republican forms were disdainfully cast a! 
consuls and tribunes gave way to new officers, 
adulatory and uu-Roman appellations. Diocletian h 



.jChap. IX. CHANGE liS STATE OF THE EaPIIlE. 



107 



gelf assumed the new title of Dominus or Lord, which 
gave offence even to the servile and flexible rehgion of 
Sis Pagan Bubjects, who reluctantly, at first, paid the 
.jbomage of adoration to the master of the world, 

Nor was the ambition of Diocletian of a narrow or 
personal character. With the pomp, he did not Moci,tua. 
laffect the solitude, of an Eastern despot. The ^^K^f'S,^ 
necessity of the state appeared to demand the ™i''"- 
. active and perpetual presence of more than one person 
invested with sovereign authority, who might organise 
the decaying forces of the different divisions of the 
..empire, against the menacing hosts of barbarians an 
«very frontier. Two Augusti and two Cffisars shared 
ihe dignity and the cares of the public administration* — 
a meaaure, if expedient for the security, fatal to the 
prosperity, of the exhausted provinces, which found 
themselves burdened with the maintenanpe of four im- 
perial establishments. A new system of taxation was 
imperatively demanded, and relentlessly introduced," 
while the Emperor seemed to mock the bitter and 
ill-suppressed murmurs of the provinces, by his lavish 
expenditure in magnificent and ornamental buildings. 
That was attributed to the avarice of Diocletian, which 
arose out of the change in the form of government, and 
in some degree out of his sumptuous ta.'fte in that parti- 
'Colar department, the embellishment, not of Eome 
(mly, but of the chief cities of the empire — Miian, Car- 
th^e, and Nicomedia. At one time, the all-p 
government aspired, after a season of scarcity, to regulate 




In the Leben Constontina dea Grod- 

by Monao, Uisre ia a gnod discm- 

oa tho Biilhurity nad relative 

foiition of tha Augusti and tiie Caan. 

- ~ ' 'iie r^U of 



208 NEGLECT OF ROME. 

the prices of all commodities, and of all iiiterchai 
whether of labour or of bargain and sale, between n 
and man. This singular and gigantic effort of ■ 
meaning but naistaken deapotism has come to light ll 
the present day. ^ _ 

Among the innovations introduced by Diocletian, 
Neglect at Hone, perhaps, was more closely connected with 
^™"' the interests of Christianity than the virtual 
degradation of Rome from the capital of the empire, bj ' 
the constant residence of the Emperor in other citiei 
Though the old metropolis was not altogether neglecte 
in the lavish expenditure of the public wealth upon n 
edifices, either for the convenience of the people or th«>l 
splendour of public solemnities, yet a larger share feE 
to the lot of other towns, particularly of Nicomet 
In this city, the Emperor more frequently displayed t 
Dew state of his imperial court, while Kome was rarelj' 
honoured by his presence. Nor was his retreat^ when ' 
wearied with political strife, on the Campanian coast, in 
the Bay of Baiie, which the older Romans had girt witi 
their splendid seats of retirement and liisnry ; it was 
on the Illyrian and barbarous side of the Adriatic thatrV 
the palace of Diocletian arose, and his agricultural C 
establishment spread its narrow belt of fertility. The*! 
removal of the seat :f government more clearly dis 
covered the magnitude of the danger to the existing'! 
institutionB from the progress of Christianity, The East-^ 
was, no doubt, more fully peopled with Christians thaa.^ 
any part of the Western world, unless, perhaps, the*f 
province of Africa ; at all events, their relative rank, I 

■ Edict of DlDcleliao, published and i > fta 3em|ier demeaUtot, 
iUmlratciI by Cal. Leake. It iealluded mlnm stndens urbi Ramie a 
to in ikt TreBtiae De Mortibu* Be Moi-t Peraecut C, vii. 
Pereeout. C. vij. ' 



THE CHURCH UNDER UIOClETLVN. 



2oy 



health, and importance, much more nearly balitnceii 
pthat of the adherents of the old Polytheism." In Rome, 
the ancient majesty of the national religion must still 
•b&ye kept down in comparative obscurity the aspiring 
rrivalry of Christianity. The Praator atill made way for 
the pontifical order, and submitted his fasces to the 
vestal virgin, while the Christian bishop pursued liis 
humble and unmarked way. The modest church or 
chnrchee of the Christians lay hid, no doubt, in some 
flequestered street or in the obscure Transteverine region, 
and did not venture to contrast themselves with the 
stately temples on which the ruling people of the world 
and the sovereigns of mankind had for ages lavished 
their treasures. However the church of the metropolis 
of the world might maintain a high rank in Christian 
estimation, might boast its antiquity, its Apostolic origin, 
or at leaat of being the scene of Apostolic mflrtyrdom, 
and might number many distinguished proselytes in all 
ranks, even in the imperial court; still Paganism, in 
this stronghold of its most gorgeous pomp, its hereditary 
eaoctity, its intimate connexion with all the inatitu- 
I tions, and its incorporation with the whole ceremonial 



* Tertallian, Apnlog. o. 37. Mr. 
CDaCfbeare (Bampton Lectures, page 
346) hsa drawn b turions inference 
fVom K passage id this cluster of Tei'- 
tulliaa, that the majority of thoH who 
had a right of ciCizeoshrp In those 
dtiet had embraml the Cbristian faith, 
while the mobs were Its mast furious 
opponent*. It appean unquestionable 
that the Btrenglh of Christianity lay in 
the Biiditle, perhaps the ineTcantile, 
bluses. The lait two books at the 
[ PiidogogoE ofCleineDt of Alexandria, 
111 authoril; for Christiia 
VOL. IL 



tnaDnen at that time, inveigh against 

community' : splendid dresses, jewels, 
gold and tilTei vrasels, rich banquetf, 
gilded litten and chariola, and private 
baths. The ladled kept Indian birds, 
Median peacocks, monkeys, and Halte« 

and orphaos; the mra had mnltiiude. 
of elavea. The siilh (tapter of the 
tiurd book—" that the Christian alone 
is rich"— would haye been unmeaning 
if «ddiesBed to ■ poor community. 



210 



RELlUlU^i OP UIOCLETUX. 



1 



of public ftfEairs ; in Rome, must have maintained nt 
least its outward supremacy. ' But, in comparison with 
the less imptsiog dignity of the municipal government 
or the local priesthood, the Bishop of Aotioch or Nico 
media was a far greater person thau the predecessor of 
the popes among tlie cousulai-s and the senate, the 
hereditary aristocracy of the old Roman fatnih'es or 
the ministers of the ruling Emperor. In Nicomedia, the 
Christian church, an edifice at least of considerable 
strength and solidity, utood on an eminence commanding 
the town, and conspicuous above the palace of the 
Bovereign. 

Diocletian miglit seem born to accomplish that re^ 
lution which took place so soon after, under the 
of Coustantine. The new constitution of the empire 
might appear to require a reconstruction of the religious 
Bystem. The Emperor, who had not scrupled to aceom- 
modate the form of the government, without respect to 
the ancieut majesty of Rome, to the present position of 
affairs — to degrade the capital itself into the rank of a 
provincial city — and to prepare the way, at least, for the 
removal of the seat of government to the East, would 
BdigiDD or have been withheld by no scruples of venera- 
'*^''™" tion for ancient rites or ancestral ceremonies, 
if the establishment of a new religion had appeared 

were more thsn forty cburches ia Rome 
nt Ibe time of the peisecutioD of Dio- 
cletiaD. It hiu been nEnal to calculnte 
one church tor each presbjtar ; whicb 
vDiilii suppo^ B falllng-off'. ot Irait no 
inci-nue, diiriog llie intetvel. But 
eome of the presbj-teri leckooed by 
Cornelius maj bate been superennu- 
ated, or in piiKiii, and liitii place tup- 
piied bj otiicn. 



I In ■ lettffl of Cornelius bishop of 
RonM. vrittea dnriug or aooa after tlis 
nlgn of Dedua, the ministerial atab- 
liihment of the Church in Kome is thai 
tMal: — One biihop; forty-sii pres- 
bjrler* ; seven deacons ; Boven sub- 
denoona; fartj-twa acol^tiu or attrii- 
duta; flftf-twa ejorcials, readera, and 
dooikeepen; 6fteen hundred widows 
will poor. Eaacb. vi, 43. 

Optatni, lib. ii., Btatea (hat tberc 



ymv VACANISM. 



EP.IS. 
harmnniso mtb his general policy. But his mind 
; Dot yet ripe for such a change ; nor perhaps hie 
knowledge of Christiaiiity and its profound and nnseeii 
inflaence, sufficiently extensive. In his asBumption of 
the title Jovina, while his colleague took that of Hercu- 
line, Diocletian gave a public pledge of his attachment 
to the old Polytheiam, Among the cares of his admi- 
sietration, he by no means neglected the purification of 

I the ancient religions.* In Paganism itself, Nfwpjgin. 
ikot silent but manifest change, of which we '™- 
^ve already noticed the commencement, had been 
creeping on. The new philosophic Polytheiam which 
.Julian attempted to establish on the ruins of Chris- 
tianity was still endeavouring to supersede the older 
poetic faith of-the Heathen nations. It had not even 
yet come to sufflcient maturity to offer itself as a for- 
midable antagonist to th» religion of Christ This nsw 
Paganism, as has been observed, arose out of the alliance 
of the philosophy and the religion of the old world. 
These once implacable adreraaries had reconciled their 
diderences, and coalesced against the common enemy, 
Christianity itself had no slight influence upou the 
formation erf the now system; and now an Eastern 
element, more and more strongly dominant, mingled 
with the whole, and lent it-, as it were, a visible object 
of worship. From Chriatianity, the new Paganism had 
adopted the Unity of the Deity ; and scrupled not to 
*ctegrade all the gods of the older world into subordinate 
daemons or ministers. The Christians had worBhfpat 
incautiously held the same language: both ""^''"■ 
J concurred in the name of diemons ; but tlie Pagans 
I used the phraae in the Platonic sense, aa good, but sub- 




212 W02SH1P OF THE SUfl. Book IL 

ordinate, spirits ; while the Bame term spoke to the 
Christian ear as expressive of malignant and diabolic 
agency. But the Jupiter Optimus Mazimus was not 
the great Supreme of the new system. The universal 
deity of the East, the Sun, to the philosophic was the 
emblem or representative, to the vulgar, the Deity. 
Diocletian himself, though he paid so much deference 
to the older faith as to assume the title of Jovius, as 
belonging to the Lord of the world, yet, on his accession, 
when he would exculpate liimself from all concern in 
the murder of his predecessor Numerian, appealed in the 
face of the army to the all-seeing deity of the Sun. It 
is the oracle of Apollo of Miletus, consulted by the 
hesitating Emperor, which is to decide the fate of Chris- 
tianity. The metaphorical language of Christianity had 
unconsciously lent strength to this new adversary ; and, 
in adoring the visible orb, some, no doubt, supposed 
that they were not departing lar from the worship of the ■ 
" Sun of Righteousness," " 

But though it might enter into the imagination ( 
an imperious and powerfiil sovereign to fuse together 
these conflicting faiths, the new Paganism was begi 
ning to advance itself as the open and most dangero 
adversary of the religion of Christ. Hierocles, ! 
great Hierophaut of the Platonic Paganism, is 
tinctly named as the author of the persecution i 
Diocletian." 

Thus, then, an irresistible combination of cu 
stances tended to precipitate the fatal crisis. The wlu 



■ Hermogenes,oneof the olderbere- 
lUrchs, applied the text " he hss placed 
iiB tabonmcle in the son" to Cfimt, 
aii assertHi that Clirist had put off bii 
DOitr in the auQ. PoDtxaui ap, Routh, 



t!eiiquiie Socrs, i. 339. 

* Another [^iiloso[^c fuhci- 
Ushed a work agiiiut the Chris 
S« Fleuiy, p. 462, from Terl "■ 






CHtf. IS. CAUTIOUS POLICY OF DIOCLETIAN. 213 

political scheme of Diocletian was incomplete, unlesa 
eome distinct and decided course was taken with these 
gelf-govemed corporations, who rendered, according to 
the notions of the time, such imperfect allegiance to 
the sovereign power. But the cautious disposition of 
Diocletian, his deeper insight, perhaps, into the real 
nature of the struggle which would tate place ; hia 
advancing age, and, possibly, the latent and depressing 
influence of the malady which may then have been 
hanging over him, and which, a short time after, brought 
him to the brink of the grave ; " these conairrent mo- 
tivee would induce him to sbnnk from violent measures ; 
to recommend a more temporising policy ; and to con- 
sent, with difficult reluctance, to the final committal 
of the imperial authority in a contest in which the 
complete submission of the opposite party could only be 
expected by those who were altogether ignorant of its 
strength. The imperial power had much to lose in an 
Bnanccessful contest ; it was likely to gain, if Buccessful, 
only a temporary and external conquest. On the one 
hand, it was urged by the danger of permitting a vast 
and self-governed body to coexist with the general 
institutions of the empire ; ran the other, if not a civil 
■war, a contest which would array one part of almost 
every city of the empire against the other in domestic 
hostility, might appear even of more perilous conse- 
quenoe to the public welfare. 

The party of the old religion, now strengthened by 



* The char^ afderangemeDt, vhich I treat, the ropect paiit to him bjr hii 
n>ti on the BUthorily of Conilaniii*, turbulent and ambitious colleH^uw ; 
•1 relntrd bj Euiebiai, ia auHicientl; and the inToluntuy iofliicnci! whioh b« 
siiiiruEri I7 the dignity of hli itidiui- itill Bppnti'ed to EieniK over thi 
tloD, [lie pLflcid content with which nSiiiri u! the empire, 
he Hppraied to enjuj bu piaeeful re- 1 



I 



^14 SEXTIJLEXTS OF THE PHILOSOFHIC PARTT. 

the aeceasion of the pliiioeophic faction, risl 

and mieht expect much, from the ri; 
omfbHsmf svBtematic, and uiuveraal iDterreutioii of 

'''^' civil anthority. It was dear that nothi 
less would restore its superiority to the decaying oai 
of Polytheism. Nearly three centuries of tame and 
passive comaivance, or of open toleration, had only in- 
creased the growing power of Christianity, while it had 
not in the least allayed that spirit of moral conqat 
which avowed that its ultimate end was the total 
tinction of idolatry. 

But in the army, the parties were placed in nu 
ineritable opposition ; and in the army commenced 
first overt acta of hostility, vfhich were the prognosttce 
of the general pei'secutiou," Nowhere did the old 
Koman religion retain so much hold upon the mind as 
among the sacred eagles. Without sacrifice to the 
givHrs of victory, the superstitious soldiery would ad- 
vance, divested of their usual confidence, against the 
enemy ; and defeat was ascribed to some impious omia- 
sion in the ceremonial of propitiating the gods. Tba^ 
Chiistiana now formed no nnimportant part in thi 
nrmy: though permitted by the ruling authorities 
abstain from idolatrous conformity, their contempt 
the auspices which promised, and of the rites whi< 
insured, tlie divine favour, would be looked upon with^ 
e({ual awe and aniniosity. The unsuccessful gem 
aud the routed army, would equally seize every excuBfl' 
to cover the misconduct of the one, or the cowardice rf 
the other. In the pride of victorj-, the pi-esent deitiwi 
of Kome would share the honour with Bomau valour 



had 
itice^B 



CbAF. IS.. DELllSEEATlOrfS AS TO CHRISTIANITY. 215 

tiie assistauce of the ChristJans would be forgotten in 
defeat ; the reBentment of the gods, to whom that defeat 
would be attributed, would be ascribed by t!ie Pagans 
to the impiety of their godlesa comrades. An incident 
of this kind took place, during one of liia campaigns, in 
the presence of Diocletian. The army was assembled 
aronnd the altar; the sacrificing priest in vain sought 
for the accustomed signs in the entraUs of the victim ; 
the sacrifice was again and again repeated, but always 
with the same result. Tiie baffled soothsayer, trembling 
with awe or with indignation, denouniied the presence 
of profane strangers. The Christians had been seen tti 
l&ake, perhaps boasted that they had made, the sign of tiie 
i, and put to flight the impotent dsemong of idolatroiis 
worship. They were apprehended, and commanded to 
aacriiice ; and a general edict was issued that all who 
refused to pay honour to the martial deities of Eome 
should be expelled from the army. It is far irom 
improbable that frequent incidents of this nature may 
have occurred ; if in the imsuccessful campaign of Gale- 
rins in the East, nothing was more likely to embitter 
flie mind of that violent Emperor against the whole 
Community. Nor would this animosity be allayed by 
(he success with which Galerius retrieved his former 
failure. While the impiety of the Christians would be 
charged with all the odium of defeat, they would never 
be permitted to participate in the glories of victoiy. 

During the winter of the year of Christ 302-3, the 
great qaestion of the policy to be adopted to- 
wards the Christians was debated, first in a Bmcpmii^ 
private conference between Diocletian and 
Galerius. Diocletian, though urged by his more vehe- 
ment partner in the empire, was averse from sanguinaiy 
proceedings, ii'om bloodshed and coiii'usion ; lie was in- 



degraafl 

" jialace 

; of the 
ofessed 

mottujl^H 



clined to more temperate measures, which would dej 
the Chriatiaais from every post of rank or authority, a 
expel them from the palace and the army. The jialace * 
itself was divided by conflicting factions. Some of the 
chief officers of Diocletian's household openly professed 
Christianity ; bis wife and his daughter were at lea«^j 
favourably disposed to the same cause; while tlie mot 
of Galerius, a fanatical worshipper, probably of Cybi 
was seized with a spirit of proselytisiu, and celebrate 
almost every day a splendid sacrifice, followed by a 
Ijiinquet, at wliich she required the presence of the 
whole court. The pertinacious resistance of the Chrii 
tians provoked her implacable resentment ; i 
influence over her son was incessantly employed 
inflame his mind to more active animosity. 

Diocletian at length consented to summon a cooi 
formed of some persons versed in the a 
tration of the law, and some military m«i.'' 
Of these, one party were aheady notoriously hostile to 
Christianity ;' the rest were courtiers, who bent to every 
intimation of the imperial favour. Diocletian still 
prolonged his resistance,' till, either to give greater 
solemnity to tlie decree, or to identify their measures 
more completely with the cause of Polytheism, it wsi 
determined to consult the oracle of Apollo at Y" 
The answer of the oracle might be anticipated; 
Diocletian submitted to the irresistible united author 



« HiFrodu, the philoaopher, 
probably > member dC this eon 
Mwhum, p. 922. 

' AieordiBe lo (he iinfrieodlr rfpre- I 
' ID of tfaeiDthor of the treatise 
Oa Mori. Pers., whow vif w of Diocle- 
Ii«n'» dararter is tonfirmed bj tluti 




I 



Chap. IX, EDICT OF PEESECDTION, 217 

of his friends, of Galeriua, aud of the God, and contented 
himself with modemting the eeverity of the edict. Gale- 
riua proposed that all who refused to sacrifice should be 
burned alive: Diocletian stipulated that there should 
be no loss of life. 

A fortunate day was chosen for the execution of the 
imperial decree. The feast of Terminalia was Edictofwt, 
inseparably connected with tJie stabOity of the '™'"'™- 
Boman power; that power which waa so manifestly 
endangered by the progress of Christianity. At the 
dawn of day, the Prefect of the city appeared jupobuc. 
at the door of the church in Nicomedia, at- "°°- 
tended by the officers of the city and of the court. The 
doors were instantly thrown down ; the Pagans beheld 
with astonishment the vacant space, and sought in rain 
for the statue of the deity. The sacred books were 
instaiitly burced, and the rest of the furniture of the 
building plundered by the tumultuous soldiery. The 
Emperors commanded from the palace a full view of 
the tumult and apohation, for the church stood iBCKcnu™ 
on a height at no great distance ; and Galerius "^ ^i™"^!*- 
wished to enjoy the apectacle of a conflagration of 
the building. The more prudent Diocletian, fearing 
that the fire might spread to the splendid edifices which 
adjoined it, suggested a more tardy and less imposing 
plan of demolition. The pioneers of the Prastorian 
guard advanced with their tools, and in a few hours the 
whole building was razed to the ground. 

The Christians made no resistance, but anaited in 
silent consternation the promulgation of tlie fatal edict. 
On the next morning it appeared. It was Iramed in 
terms of the sternest and most rigorous proscription, 
short of the punishment of death. It comprehended all 
ranks and orders under its sweeping and inevitable 



I 



218 



EDICT TORN DOWy. 



proviBions. Throughout Uje empire, the c)mrches i 
th« Christians were to be levelled with the ground ; 
public existenne of the religion wna thus to be annihi'') 
lated. The sacred books were to be delivered, undCT I 
paui of death, by their legitimate guardiaiis, tlie bishops I 
aud presbyters, to the imperial officers, and publicly 1 
burnt. The philosophic party thus hoped to extirpate 1 
those pernicious writingB with which they in vain con* I 
tested the supremacy of the public mind. 

The property of the churches, whether endowmento I 
in land or furniture, was confiscated ; all public b 
blies, for the purposes of worship, prohibited ; the 
Christians of rank and distinction were degraded from 
all their offices, and declared incapable of filling any 
situation of trust or authority ; those of the plebeian 
order were deprived of the right of Koman citizenship, 
which secured the sanctity of their persons from corporal 
chastisement or torture ; slaves were declared incapable 
of claiming or obtaining liberty ; the whole race were I 
placed without the pale of the law, disqualified irom^ 
appealing to its protection in case of wrong, as of pei*«i I 
sonal injury, of robbery, or adultery ; wiiile they were' I 
liable to civil actions, bound to bear all the burdens dP I 
the state, and amenable to all its penalties. In many- [ 
places, an altar was placed before the tribunal of justice* > 
on which the plaintiff was obliged to sacrifice, before' 
his cause could obtain a hearing." 

No sooner had this edict been affixed in the customary' ' 
Ed^ii^ place, than it was torn down by the hand of a , 
*"™- rash and indignant Christian, who added insult; J 

to his offence by a contemptuous inscription ; " Such are ' 
the victories of the Emperors over the Goths and Sar-. I 



• EuBeb. viii. 2, Dd Hart. Pi.'rKCiit. apud Laclaatiuin. 



I 



Chw rx, FIRE IS THE PALACE. 219 

matians."' This outrage on the Imperial majesty was 
expiated by tJie death of the delinquent, who ayowed 
hia glorious crime. Although less discreet Christians 
might secretly dignify the sufferings of the victim with 
the honours of martyrdom, they could only venture to 
approve the patience with which he bore the agony of 
being roasted alive by a slow fire." 

The prudence or the moderation of Diocletian had 
rejected the more violent and sanguinary counsels of 
the Cfesar, who had proposed that all who refused to 
sacrifice should be bnmed alive. But Jiis personal 
terrors triumphed over the lingering influence of com- 
passion or justice. On a sudden, a fire buret Fiwipite 
out in the palace of Nicomedia, which spread Ntemnifa. 
almost to the chamber of the Emperor. The real origin 
of this fatal conflagration is unlmown; and notwith- 
Btanding the various causes to wliieli it was ascribed by 
the fears, the malice, and the superstition of the different 
classes, we may probably refer the whole to accident. 
It may have arisen from the hasty or injudicious con- 
struction of a palace built but recently. One account 
ascribes it to lightning. If this opinion obtained general 
belief among the Christian party, it would, no doubt, be 
considered, by many, a visible sign of the Divine ven- 
geanca, on account of the promulgation of the imperial 
edict. The Oliristians were accused by the indignant 
voice of the Heathen ; they retorted, by throwing the 
guilt upon the Emperor Galerius, who had practised (so 
the ecclesiastical historian suggests) the part of a secret 
incendiary, in order to criminate the Christians and 
alarm Dioclesian into his more violent measures," 

Tlie obvious impolicy of such a meaam^e, as the 

Michfim. De F^eb, Chriit. • Eiiseb. viii, 5. ■ EiueU; viii. fi. 



E20 COSSEQUESCES OP THE CONFLAGRATION. Book IB 

chance of actually destroying both their imperial enemiea 
in the fire must have been very remote, and (fe it conld 
only darken the subtle mind of Diocletian with the 
blackest suspicions and madden Galerius to more 
unmeasured hostility, must acquit the Christians of any 
such design, even if their high principles, their sacred 
doctrines of peaceful submission under the direst per» 
secution, did not place them above all suspicion. The 
only Christian who would have incurred ^e guilt, at 
provoked upon his innocent brethren the danger in- 
separable from such an act, would have been some 
desperate fanatic, like the man who tore down the edict. 
And such a man would have avowed and gloried in tbs 
act ; he would have courted the ill-deserved honours of 
martyrdom. The silence of Constantine may cleax 
Galerius of the darker charge of contriving, by these 
base and indirect means, the destruction of a par^ 
against which he proceeded with undisguised hostility; 
Galerius, however, as if aware of the ftill effect with 
which such an event would work on the mind of Dior 
cletian immediately left Nicomedia, declaring that ha 
could not consider his person safe within that city. 

The consequences of this fatal conflagration were 
disastrous, to the utmost extent which their woiat 
enemies could desire, to the whole Christian community, 
The officers of the household, the inmates of the palace, 
were exposed to the moat cruel tortures, by the order, 
it is said in the presence, of Diocletian. Even the 
females of the Imperial family were not exempt, if from 
the persecution, from that suspicion which demanded 
the clearest eridence of their Paganism. Prisca and 
Valeria were constrained to pollute themselves with 
sa^'rifice ; the powerful eunuchs, Dorotheus and Goi^ 
gonius and Andreas, suffered death ; Authimus, the 



r 
I 

I 



PERSECDllON BECOMES GENERAL. 



221 



Bisliop of Nicomedia, waa beheaded. Many were ex- 
ecuted, many burnt alive, many laid bound, witli stones 
round their necks, in boats, rowed into the midst of the 
lake, and thrown into the water. 

From Nicomedia, the centre of the persecution, the 
impeml edicts were promulgated, though with 
less than the usual rapidity, through the East hqq bKomu 
Letters were despatched requiring the co- ""' 
operation of the Western Emperors, Maximian, the 
associate of Diocletian, and the Cjesar Con- 
stautius, in the restoration of the dignity of the 
ancient religion, and the suppression of the hostile faith, 
Constantius made a show of concurrence in the measures 
of hia colleagues ; he commanded the demolition of the 
churches, but abstained from all violence against the 
persons of the Christians." Gaul alone, his favoured 
province, was not defiled by Christian blood. The 
fiercer temper of Maximian only awaited the signal, 
and readily acceded, to carry into effect the barbarous 
edicts of his colleagues. 

In almost every part of the world, Christianity found 
itself at once assailed by the full force of the civil 
power, constantly goaded on by the united influence of 
the Pagan priesthood and the philosophic party. Nor 
was Diocletian, now committed in the desperate strife, 
content with the less tyrannical and eanguinaiy edict 
of Nicomedia. Vague rumours of insurrection, some 
tumultuary risings in regions which were densely peopled 
with Christians, and even the enforced assumption of 



r Eusebiai, whosa pan«g7ric on CoB- 
inline throws bock aome of iu nduk- 

tlon upon his father, makes CoiuUiitiut 
-inian, wilh the ChrlatUa lerricc 

l^ularlf perfnrmed In hi» pulooe, Vit, 



Constimt. G. 33. The eiaggeratioti 
tbi« BtaUmeDt 19 eipised l:^ F'igi, 
Knn, 303, n, viii. Mosheim, DeR«i 
ante Const. Mag. p. 938-935. 



ILLNESS OF DIOCLETIAN. 



tbe purple by two adventurere, one in Armenia, anotbex i 
in Antioch, seemed to countenance the charges of poll* 
tical ambition, and the design of armed and vigorotU 1 



It ia the worst evil of religious contests that the civil 
power cannot retract without the humiliating confeseion 
of weakness, and must go on increasing in the severity 
of its measures. It soon finds that there is no success 
short of the extermination of tbe adversary ; and it has 
but the alternative of acknowledged failure or this 
internecine warfare. The demolition of the chnrches 
might remove objects offensive to the wounded pride of 
the dominant Polytheism ; the destruction of the sacred 
books might gratify the jealous hostility of the philoBO* 
phic party ; but not a single community was dissolved. 
The precarious submission of the weaker Christians only 
confirmed the more resolute opposition of the stronger 
and more heroic adherents of Christianity, 

Edict followed edict, rising in regular gradations of 
angry barbarity. The whole clergy were declared 
enemies of the stata ; fbey were seized wherever a 
hostile Prefect chose to put forth his boundless autho- 
rity ; and bishops, presbyters, and deacons were crowded 
into the prisons intended for the basest malefactors. A 
new rescript prohibited tbe liberation of any of these 
prisoners, unless they should consent to offer sacrifice. 

During the promulgation of these rescripts, Diocletias 
celebrated his triumph in Rome ; he held a conference 
with the CEesar of Africa, who entered into hia rigorous 
measures. On his return to Nicomedia,'he was 
seized with that long and depressing malady 
which, whether or not it affected him with temporary 
derangement, secluded him within the impenetrable 
precincta of the palace, whose sacred secrets were for- 



r 
I 



HIS ABDIL'ATIOS — ITS IlESCLTS. 



223 



bidden to be betrayed to the popular ear. This rigid 
concealment gave currency to every kind of gloomy 
rumour. The whole Roman world awaited with mingled 
anxiety, hope, and apprehension, the news of his disso- 
lution. Diocletian, to the universal astonish- Anri.bdiw 
ment, appeared again in the robes of empire ; ^li„""°' 
to the still greater general astonishment, he ''"^ ^' 
appeared only to lay them aside, to abdicate the throne, 
and to retire to the peaceful occupation of fiis palace and 
agricultural villa on the Illyrian shore of the Adriatic. 
His colleague Maximian, with ill-dissembled reluctance, 
followed the example of his associate, patron, and coad- 
jutor in the empire. 

The great scheme of Diocletian, the joint adminis- 
tration of the empire by associate Augusti, mth their 
subordinate Cgesars, if it hod averted for a time the 
dismemberment of the empire, and had infused some 
vigour into the provincial governments, had introduced 
other evils of appalliog magnitude ; but its fatal consfr 
quences were more manifest directly the master hand 
was withdrawn which had organised the new machine of 
government. Fierce jealousy succeeded at once among 
the rival Emperors to deceut concord ; all subordination 
was lost ; and a succession of civil wars between the 
contending sovereigns distracted the whole ajnani 
world. The earth groaned under the separate '°'^'^' 
tyranny of its many masters ; and, according to tlie 
strong expression of a rhetorical writer, the grinding 
taxation had so exhausted the proprietors and the culti- 
cators of the soil, the merchants, and the artisans, that 
none remained to tax but beggars." The sufferings of 
the Christians, however, still inilicted with unremittiug 



Z24 



GALEalUS EMPEEOR OF THE EAST. 



barbarity, were lost in tlie commun sufferinga of mj 
kind. The rights of Bomaa citizeDsIkip, which had 
beea violated in their persons, were now universally 
neglected ; and, to extort money, the chief persons of 
the towns, tbe unhappy decuriona, who were responsible 
for the payment of the contributions, were put to tlie, 
tortura Even tbe punishment, the roasting by a sl< 
fire, — invented to force the conscience of the devotrt! 
Chrifltians, — was borrowed, in order to wring the re- 
luctant impost from the unhappy provincial. 

The abdication of Diocletian left the most implaeable 
GiieriMEm- enemy of Christianity, Galerius, master of the 
tast. East ; and in the East the persecution of 

the Christians, as well as the general oppression of the 
M«iioio subjects of the empire, continued in unmitigated 
'**^- severity. The nephew of Galerius tbe Cffisar* 

Maxiinin Daias, was tbe legitimate heir to his releiitle«< 
violence of temper, and to hia stem hostility to the 
Christian name. In the West, the assumption of the 
purple by Maxentius, the son of the abdicated Maximiaa 
(Herculius), had no unfavourable effect on tbe situation 
of the Christians. They suffered only with the reat 
of their fellow-subjects from the vices of Max- 
entius. If their matrons and virgins were not 
secure from his lust, it was the common lot of all who, 
although of the highest mnlc and dignity, might attract 
his insatiable passions. If a Christian matron, the wife 
of a senator, submitted to a voluntary death' rather 
than to tbe loss of her honour, it was ber beauty, not 
her Christianity, which marked ber out as the 
victim of the tyrant. It was not until Constan- 
tino began to develope his ambitious views of reuniting 



3 

lao-i^^H 
hadV 




COKSTANTINE. 



I 



^B UUP. ss, 

^P tbe dismembered monarchy, that Maxentiua threw him- 

V Beli, as it were, upon the ancient goda of Eome, and 

identified hia own cause with that of Polytheism. 

At this juncture all eyes were turned towards the 
elder son of Constantius. If not already recognised by 
the prophetic glance of devout hope as the first Chris- 
tian sovereign of Rome, he seemed placed by providential 
wisdom as the protector, as the head, of the Christian 
interest The enemies of Christianity were bis ; and if 
he was not, as yet, bound by the hereditary attachment 
of a sou to the religion of his mother Helena, hia father 
ConatantiuB had bequeathed him the wise example of 
humanity and toleration. Placed as a hostage in the 
handa of Galerins, Constantino bad only escaped from 
the honourable captivity of the Eastern court, where he 
had been exposed to constant peril of his life, by the 
ppomptitude and rapidity of his moveroenta. He had 
fled, and during the first stages maimed the post-horses 
which might have been employed in his pursuit. 
During the persecution of Diocletian, Conatontius alone, 
of all the Emperors, by a dexterous appearance of sub- 
mission, had screened the Christians of Gaul from the 
common lot of their brethren. Nor was it probable 
that Constantino would render, on this point, more 
willing allegiance to the sanguinary mandates of Ga- 
lerins. At present, however, Constantine stood rather 
aloof from the afTairs of Italy and tbe East ; and till 
the resumption of the purjile by the elder Maximian, 
his active mind was chiefly employed in the consoli- 
dation of his own power in Gaul, and the repulse of 
the German barbarians who threatened the frontier 
of the Ehina 

Kotwithstanding that the persecution had now lasted 
or six or seven years, in no part of the world did 



I 



CHEISTIAN EXDORANCE, 



Christiamty betray any signs of vital decay. It was far ■ 
deeply rooted in tlie minde of men, far too 
tensively promulgated, far too vigorously orgatb- 
ized, not to endure tliis violent but unavailing shock. If 
its public worsbip was suspended, the believers met in 
secret, or cherished in the unassailable privacy of the 
heart the inalienable rights of conscience. If it suffered 
numerical loss, the body was not weakened by the 
severance of its more feeble and worthless memberB. 
suifcrtngi The inert resistance of the general mass wearied 
Urns. out the vesatiouH and harassing measures of the 

Government. Their numbers secured them again^ 
general extermination ; but, of course, the persecuti(Hi 
fell most heavily upon the most eminent of the body* 
upon men who were deeply pledged by the sense (^' 
sbame and honour, even if, in any case, the noblet 
motives of conscientiouB faith and courageous oonfldenM 
in the truth of the religion were wanting, to bear with 
unyielding heroism the utmost barbarities of the peree- 
cutor. Those who submitted performed the hated cere- 
mony with visible reluctance, with trembling hand, 
averted countenance, and deep remorse of heart; thoM 
who resisted to death were animated by the presence <rf 
multitudes who, if they dared not applaud, could scarcely 
conceal their admiration. Women crowded to kiss the 
hems of their garments, and their scattered ashes, ot 
unburied bones, were stolen away by the devout zeal of 
their adherents, and already began to be treasured at 
incentives to faith and piety. It cannot be supposed 
that the great functionaries of the state, the civil or 
military governors, could be so universally seared to 
humanity, or so incapable of admiring these frequent 
examples of patient heroism, as not either to mitigate in 
9ome degree the sufferings which they were bound ta 



I 

es>i^H 



I 
I 



GALEHIUS. 



inflict, or even to feel Bonie secret sympathy with the 
blameless Victims whom they condemned. That sym- 
pathy might ripen, at a more tbrtimate period, into 
sdntimeiita still moro favourable to the Christian cause. 

The most signal and unexpected triumph of Chris- 
tianity was over the author of the persecution, "While 
victory and success appeared to follow that party in the 
state which, if they had not as yet openly espoused the 
cause of Christianity, had unquestionably its most ardent 
prayers in their favour, the enemies ot the Christians 
were amitten mth the direst calamities, and the Almigiity 
appeared visibly to exact the most awful vengeance for 
their sufferings. Galerius himself was forced, as it were, 
to implore mercy; not indeed in the attitude of penitence, 
but of profoiuid humiliation, at the toot of the Christian 
altar. In the eighteenth year of his reign, the great 
pereecutor lay expiring of a most loathsome malady. A 
deep and fetid ulcer preyed on the lower regions of his 
body, and ate them away into a mass of living comiptiou. 
It is certainly singular that the disease, vulgarly called 
being " eaten of wonna," should have been the destiny 
of Herod the Great, of Galerius, and of Philip II. of 
Spain. Physicians were sought from all quarters ; every 

t oracle was consulted in vain ; that of Apollo suggested 
a cure which aggravated the virulence of the disease. 
Not merely the chamber, the whole palace, of Galerius 
is described as infected by the insupportable stench 
which issued from hia wound; while the agonies which 
he suffered might have satiated the worst vengeance of 
the most unchristian enemy. 

From the dying bed of Galerius issued an edict, 
which, while it condescended to apologise for pjiaoto*- 
the past severities against the . Christians, an, Aprhk 
under the specious plea of regard for the public welfare 

Q.9. 



223 



EDICT OF GALEEIUa. 



and the unity. of the state — while it expressed coi 

passion for his deluded subjects, whom the Govemnn 
was unwilling to leave in the forlorn condition of bei 
absolutely without a religion — admitted to the fulleati 
extent the total failure of the severe measures for th« 
suppression of Christianity.'' It permitted the free and 
pubKc exercise of the Christian religion. Its close 
still more remarkable ; it contained an earnest request- 
to the Christians to intercede for the suffering Empena 
in their supplications to their God. Whether this edict 
was dictated by wisdom, by remorse, or by superstitioua 
terror ; whether it was the act of a statesman, convinced, 
by experience of the impolicy, or even the injustice, ol 
his sanguinary acts; whether, in the agonies of his 
excruciating disease, his conscience was harassed by the 
thought of his tortured victims ; or, having vainly 
solicited the assistance of his own deities, he would 
desperately endeavour to propitiate the favour, or, at 
least, allay the wrath, of the Christiana' God ; the whole 
Koman world was witness of the public and humiliating 
acknowledgment of defeat extorted from the dying 
Emperor, A few days after the promulgation of the 
edict, Galerius expired. 

The edict was issued from Sardica, in the name of 
^j,,3n, Galerius, of Licinius, and of Conatantine, It 
'**'■ accorded with the sentiments of the two latter: 
Maxim in II. alone, the Csesar of the East, whose peculiar 
jurisdiction extended over Syria and Egypt, rendered 
but an imperfect and reluctant obedience to the decree 
of toleration. His jealousy was, no doubt, excited by 
the omission of his name in the preamble to the edict ; 
aud he seined this excuse to discountenance its promol- 



I 
I 



I 



H CHAP. IX. UAXIMIN n. 229 

^1 gation in his provinces. Yet for a time he suppresBed 
■^ Lis profound and inveterate hostility to the cominctot 
Christian name. He permittedunwritten orders tiKEut. 
to be issued to the municipal governors of the towiia, and 
to the magistrates of the villages, to put an end to all 
violent proceedings. The zeal of Sabinns, the Pnetorian 
Prefect of the East, supposing the milder sentiments of 
Galerius to he shared by Maximin, seems to have outrun 
the intentions of the Cteaar. A circular rescript appeared 
in the name of Sabinua, echoing the tone, though it did 
not go quite to the length, of the imperial edict It 
proclaimed that " it had been the anxious wisli of the 
divinity of the most mighty Emperors to reduce the 
whole empire to pay a harmonious and united worship 
to the immortal gods. But their clemency had at length 
taken compassion on the obstinate perversity of the 
Christians, and determined on desisting from their 
ineffectual attempts to force them to abandon their 
hereditary faith." The magistrates were instructed t:i 
communicate the contents of this letter to each other. 
The governors of the provinces, supposing at once that 
the letter of the Prefect contained the real sentiments 
of the Emperor, with merciful haste despatched ordera 
to all persons in subordinate civil or military command, 
the magistrates both of the towns and the villages, who 
acted upon them with unhesitating obedience." 

The cessation of the persecution showed at once its 
extent. The prison doors were thrown open ; the mines 
rendered up their condemned labourers. Everywhere 
long trains of Olu-istians were seen hastening to the 
ruins of their churches and visiting the places sanctified 
bj their former devotion. The pubhc roads, the streets, 



f 



Z30 



DELIVERANCE OF THE CHRISTIAKS. 



and mnrket-placea of the towDS were crowded witb li 
[irocessions, singing psalms of thanksgiving for tiu 
deliverance. Those who had maintained their fail 
under these severe trials passed triumphant in conscioi 
even if lowly pride, amid the flattering congratulationti' 
of their brethren ; those who had failed in the hour of 
affliction hastened to remiite themselves with their God, 
and to obtain readmission into the flourishing and re- 
united fold. The Heathens themselves were astonished,. 
it is said, at this signal mark of the power of the Chris- 
tians' God, who had thus unexpectedly wrought so 
sudden a revolution in favour of his worshippers.* 

But the cause of the Christians might appear not yet 
sufficiently avenged. The East, the great scene of 
persecution, was not restored to prosperity or peace. It 
had neither completed nor expiated the eight years of 
relentless persecution. The six months of ap- 
boBitetQ parent reconciliation were occupied by the 

Chrislianlty. „,,... . / 

Ojesar Masimm m preparing measures ot more 
subtile and profound hostility. The situation of Maximin 
himself was critical and precarious. On the death of 
Galerius, he had seized on the government (rf 
the whole of Asia, and the forces of the two 
Emperors, Licinius and Maximin, watched each other 
on either side of the Bosphorus, with jealous and 
dissembled hostility. Throughout the West, the Ei 
perors were favourable, or at least not inimical, to 
Christianity. The political dilBculties, even the vices 
of Maximin, enforced the policy of securing the support 
of a large and influential body ; he placed himself at 
the liead of the Pagan interest in the East. A deliberataj 
scheme was laid for the advancement of one party 



tiei,^ 
illdH 

to ™ 




» 



Ch*p. IX. HOSTILITY OF MASIMIS, 231 

the popular favour foe the depression of the ether. 
Measurea were systematically taken to enfeeble the 
influence of Christianity, not by the authority of Govern- 
ment, but by poisoning the public mind, and infusing 
into it a settled and conacientioQS animosity. False 
Acts of Pilate were forged, intended to cast discredit on 
tlie Divine founder of Christianity ; they were dissemi- 
nated with the utmost activity. The streets of Aatioch 
and other Eastern cities were placarded with the most 
caliimniona statements of the origin of the Christian 
faith. The instruotors of youth were directed to intro- 
duce them as lessons into the schools, to make their 
pupils commit them to memory ; and boys were heard 
repeating, or grown persons chanting, the most scan- 
dalous blasphemies against the object of Christian ado- 
ration." In Damascus, the old arts of compelling or 
perHuading women to oonfesa that they had been present 
at the rites of the Christians, which had ended in lawless 
and promiscuous licence, were renewed. The confession 
of some miserable prostitutes was submitted to the Em- 
peror, published by liia command, and disseminated 
throughout the Eastern cities, although the Clu-istian 
rites had been long celebrated in those cities irith the 
utmost public! t)'.' 

The second measure of Maximin was the reorganisa- 
tion of the Pagan religion in all its original ii«™Hiii«- 
pomp, and more than its ancient power. A Paganian. 
complete hierarchy was established on the model of the 
Christian episcopacy. Provincial pontiffs, men of the 
highest rank, were nominated ; they were inaugurated 




232 PAGANISM REORGANIZED. B 

with a solemn and splendid ceremonial, and were di»T 1 
tinpuished by a tunic of white. The Emperor himself J 
assumed the appointmeut to the pontifical offices in the. I 
iliflerent towns, which had in general rested with the ] 
local authorities. Persons of rank and opulence were ] 
prevailed on to accept these sacred functions, and were 1 
thus committed, by personal interest and corporata i 
attachment, in the decisive struggle. Sacrifices were ( 
performed with the utmost splendour and regularity, 
and the pontiffs were invested with power to compel the 
attendance of all the citizens. The Chiistians were liable 
to every punishment or tortui'e, short of death. The 
Pagan interest having th\is become predominant in the 
greater cities, addresses were artfully suggested, and 
voted by the acclaiming multitude, imploring the inter- 
ference of the Emperor to expel these enemies of the 
established religion from their walls. The rescripta of 
the Emperor were engraved on brass, and suspended in 
the public parts of the city. The example was set by 
Antioch, once the head-quarters, and still, no doubt, a 
stronghold of Christianity. Theotecnus, the logistes or 
chamberlain of the city, took the lead. A splendid 
image was erected to Jupiter Philius, and dedicated 
with all the imposing pomp of mystery, perhaps of 
Eastern magic* As though they would enlist that 
strong spirit of mutual attachment which bound thp 
Christians together, the ancient Jupiter was invested 
in the most engaging and divine attribute of the God of 
Christianity — he was the God of Love. Nicomedia, 
the capital of the East, on the entrance of the Emperor, 
presented an address to the same effect as those which, 
had been already offered by Antioch, Tyre, aud other 

r Eowb. li. a, 3. 



I 



IX. RENEWED PERSECUTIONS. 233 

cities ; and the Emperor affected to yield to this aimul- 
taneouB expression of tlie geiieral sentiment. 

The first overt act of hostility was a prohibition to 
the Christians to meet in their cemeteries, perscmitoas 
whA"e probably their enthusiasm was wrought S^ot^- 
to the utmost heiglit by the sacred thoughts '"*"■ 
associated with the graves of their martyrs. But the 
policy of Masimiu, in general, confined itselC to vexatious 
and harassing oppression, and to other punishments, 
which inflicted the pain and wret^^hedneas without the 
dignity of dying for the faith : the persecuted had the 
sufferings, but not the glory, of martyrdom. Such, most 
likely, were the general orders of Maximin, though, in 
some places, the zeal of his officers may have trans- 
gressed the prescribed limits, it must not be said, of 
humanity. The Bishop and two inhabitants of Emesa, 
and Peter the Patriarch of Alexandria, obtained the 
honours of death. Lucianus, the Bishop of Antioch, was 
sent to undergo a public examination at Nicomedia ; he 
died in prison. The greater number of victims suffered 
the less merciful punishment of mutilation or blinding. 
The remonstrances of Constantine were unavailing ; the 
Emperor persisted in his cruel course; and is said to 
have condescended to an ingenious artiiiee to afflict the 
sensitive consciences of some persons of the higher 
orders who escaped less painful penalties. His banquets 
were served vrith victims previously slain in sacrifice, 
and his Christian guedta were thus unconsciously be- 
trayed into a crime which the authority of St Paul 
had not yet convinced the more scrupulous believers to 
be a matter of perfect indifference,'' 

The Emperor, in his public rescript in answer to the 

k Euub. a. 7. 



234 TTRASKT OF MAXIMIN. 

address from the city of Tyre, had, as it were, placed j 
tbe issue of the contest on an appeal to Heaven, 
»r^'?r^( The gods of Paganism were asserted to be 
8u"eotui8 the benefactors of the human race; through 
their influence, the soil had yielded its annual 
increase ; the genial air had not been parched by fetal 
droughts ; the sea had neither been agitated with tem- 
pests nor swept by hurricanes; the earth, instead of 
being rocked by volcanic convulsions, had been the 
peaceful and fertile mother of its abundant fraits. 
Their own neighbourhood spoke the manifest favour of 
these benignant deities, in its rich fields waving with 
harvests, its flowery and luxuriant meadows, and in 
the mild and genial temperature of the air. A city M 
blest by its tutelary gods, in prudence as well as in 
justice, would expel those traitorous citizens whose im- 
piety endangered these blesaingB, and would wisdy 
purify its walls from the infection of their heaven^ 
despising presence. 

But peace and prosperity by no means ensued upon 
Keveiw. *J^s depression of the Christians. Notwith- 
*■"■*"■ standing the embellishment of the Heathen 
temples, the restomtion of the Polytheistic ceremonial 
in more than ordinary pomp, and the nomination of 
the noblest citizens to the pontifical offices, every kind 
of calamity — tyranny, war, pestilence, and famine^ 
depopulated the Asiatic provinces. Not the least 
scourge of the Pagan East was the Pagan Emperor 
himself. Christian writers may have exaggerated, they 
can scarcely have invented, the vices of Maximin. His 
lusts violated alike the honour of noble and plebeian 
Tymmyot families- The eunuchs, the purveyors for his 
Mn.kdiii. passions, traversed the provinces, marked out 
those who were distinguished by fatal beauty, and con- 



1 

cedfl 
ren,^! 

! 

I 

I 

I 



I 



I 



Chap. IX. WAR AND FAMINE. 235 

ducted these extraordinary perquisitions with the most 
insolent indignity: where milder measures would not 
prevail, force was used. Nor was tyranny content with 
the gratification of its own licence : noble virgins, after 
having been dishonoured by the Emperor, were granted 
in marriage to his slaves ; even those of the highest rank 
were consigned to the embraces of a barbarian husband. 
Valeria, the widow of Galerius, and the daughter of 
Diocletian, was first insulted by proposals of marriage 
from Maximin, whose wife was still living, and then 
forced to wander through the Eastern provinces in the 
humblest disguise, tiU, at length, she perished at Thes- 
salonica by the still more unjustifiable sentence of 
Licinius. 

The war of Maximin with Armenia was wantonly 
undertaken in a spirit of persecution. This war with 
earliest Christian kingdom was attached, in all ^^^^^ 
the zeal of recent proselytism, to the new religion. 
That part which acknowledged the Eoman sway was 
commanded to abandon Christianity ; and the legions of 
Eome were employed in forcing the reluctant kingdom 
to obedience.* 

But these were foreign calamities. Throughout the 
dominions of Maximin the summer rains did 
not fall ; a sudden famine desolated the whole 
East; com rose to an unprecedented price.* Some 
large villages were entirely depopulated ; many opulent 
families were reduced to beggary, and persons in a 
decent station sold their children as slaves. The rapa- 
city of the Emperor aggravated the general misery. 
The granaries of individuals were seized, and their stores 



^ Euseb. ix, S. 

< The statement in the text of Eu- 
•ebius, af it stasda^ is utterly inere- 



dible— a measure of wheat at 2^^Q 
attics (drachm8>, from 70/. to 80/. 



PESTILENCE. 



closed up by the imperial seal. The flocks and herds 
were driven away, to be offered in unavailing sacrifices 
to the gods. The court of the Emperor, in the mean 
time, insulted the general auffering by its excessive 
luxury ; his foreign and barbarian troops lived in a kind 
of free quarters, in wasteful plenty, and plundered on 
all aides with perfect impuuity. The scanty 
and unwholesome food produced its usual effect, 
1 pestilential malady. Carbuncles broke out all over 
the bodies of those who were seized with the disorder, 
but particularly attacked the eyes, so that multitudea 
became helplessly and incurably blind. The houses 
of the wealthy, which were secure against the famine, 
seemed particularly marked out by the pestilenca The 
hearts of all classes were hardened by the extent of the 
calamity. The most opulent, in despair of diminishing 
the vast mass of misery, or of relieving the Bwarms 
of beggars who filled every town and city, gave up the 
fruitless endeavour. The Christians alone took a nobler 
and evangelic revenge upon their suffering enemies. 
They were active in allaying those miseries of which 
they were the common victims. The ecclesiastical his- 
torian claims no exemption for the Christians from the 
general calamity, but honourably boasts that tliey alone 
displayed the offices of humanity and brotherhood. 
They were everywhere, tending the living, and burjnng 
the dead. They distributed bread ; they visited the in- 
fected houses ; they scared away the dogs which preyed, 
in open day, on the bodies in the streets, and rendered 
to those bodies the decent honours of burial. The myriads 
who perished, and were perishing, in a state of absolute 
desertion, could not but acknowledge that Christianity 
was stronger than love of kindred. The fears and tha 
gratitude of mankind were equally awakened in theii 



1 



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I 




.Ch*p. IX. MAXmiN CEASES TO PEHSECUTE. 



237 



favour: the feara which could not but conclude tliosp 
calamities to be the vengeance of Hcnveit for the per- 
secutions of its favoured people ; the gratitude to thoBO 
who thus repaid good for evil in the midst of a liustilo 
and exasperated aociety." 

Before we turn our attention to the West, end foIloM 
the victorious career of Ooustantine to the reoousolida* 
tion of the empire in hia person, and the triumph of 
Christianity through his favour, it may be more consiB- 
teut with the distinct view of these proceedings to violate 
in some degree the order of time, and follow to its doao 
the history of the Chriatiaii persecutions in the East. 

Maximin took tlie alarm, and endeavoiued, too lut«, 
to retrace his steps. He issued an edict, in nuimin 
which he avowed the plain principles of tjjle- [^^uiillll 
ration, and ascribed his departure from that """'■ 
Balutaty policy to tlie importunate zeal of hia rapitAl 
and of other cities, which he could not treat with dift- 
respect, but which had demanded the expulsion of the 
Christians from their respective tenitories. He com* 
manded the suspension of all violent measures, and 
recommended only mild and persuasive means to win 
back these apostates to the religion of their fon^athera. 
The Christians, who had once been deluded by a Bhow 
of mercy, feared to reconstruct their fallen ediHcew, 
or to renew their public assemblies, and awaited, io 
trembling expectation, the issue of the approaching 
contest with Liciuios." 

The victory of Constantine over SlaxentJuii had left 
him laaBta oT Borne. Constantine and LAdniia reigned 
over all tlie European provinces; aud the imblu 
edict tot the tderstion c^ Chiistianity, iamed id the 



238 DEATH OF MAXTMIS. Bo 

name of these two Emperors, announced the policy of i 
the Western Empire. 

After the defeat of Masimin by Licinius, his obscure ' 
death gave ample -scope for the credulous if not in- 
ventive malice of liia enemies to ascribe to liis last J 
moments every excess of vfeaknesa and cruelty, as well 3 
as of suffering. He is said to have revenged his baffled I 
Aj) 313 hopes of victory on the Pagan priesthood, who ] 
j^^ „f had incited him to the war, by a promiscaoas 
'•■"'"°- massacre of all within his power. Hia last 
imperial act was the promulgation of another edict,^ 
still more explicitly favourable to the Christians, in 
which he not merely proclaimed an unrestricted liberty ' 
of conscience, but restored the confiscated property of 
their churches. His bodily sufferings completed the 
dark catalogue of persecuting Emperors who had 
periahed under the most eseniciating tormenta; his 
body was slowly consumed by an internal fire." 

With Maximin expired the laat hope of Paganism to 
The new maintain itself by the authority of the Govem- 
S^™ ment. Though Licinius was only accidentally 
"'"^''°"'- connected with the Christian party, and after- 
wards allied himself for a short time to the Pagim 
interest, at this juncture his enemies were those of 
Christianity ; and bis cruel triumph annihilated at once 
the adherents of Maximin, and those of the old religion. 
The new hierarchy fell at once ; the chief magistrates 
of almost all the cities were executed ; for even where 
they were not invested in the pontifical offices, it was 
under their authority that Paganism had renewed its ' 
more unposing form, and sank vrith them into ihe com-' ' 




Chap. IX. CH0BCH OF TYRE REBUILT. 239 

mon ruin. The arts by which Theotecnas of Antioch, 
the chief adviser of Maximin, had imposed upon the 
popnlace of that city by mysterious wonders, were de- 
tected and exposed to public contempt, and the author 
put to death. Tyre, which had recommended itself to 
Maximin by the most violent hostility to the Christian 
name, was coustrained to witness the reconstruction of 
the fallen church in far more than its original j^ 
gi-audeur, Eusebius, afterwards the Bishop of otihodiurch 
Cffisarea and the historian of the Church, pro- 
nounced an inaugural discourae on its-reconstmctioii. 
His description of the building ia corioua in itself, as the 
model of an Eaatem church, and illustrates the power 
and opulence of the Chiistian party in a city which had 
taken the lead on the side of Paganism, Nor would 
the Christian orator venture greatly to exa^erate the 
splendour of a building which stood in the midst of, and 
provoked, as it were, a comparison with, temples of high 
antiquity and unquestioned magnificence. 

The Christian church was bmlt on the old site ; for, 
though a more convenient and imposing space might 
have been found, the piety of the Christians clung with 
reverence to a spot consecrated by the most holy as- 
sociations; and their pride, perhaps, was gratified in 
restoring to more than its former grandeur tlie edifice 
which had been destroyed by Pagan malice. The whole 
site was environed with a wall ; a lofty propylson, 
which faced the ritdng sun, commanded the attention 
of the passing Pagan, who could not but contrast the 
present splendour with the recent solitude of the place; 
and afforded an imposing glimpse of the magnificence 
within. The intermediate space between the propylseou 
and the church, was laid out in a cloister with four 
colonnades, enclosed with a palisade of wood. The 



240 SPLESDODR OF THB NEW EDIFICE. 



centre square was ojien to the sua and air, and tw») 
fountaiDS sparkled in the midst, and reminded tins 
shipper, with their emblematic purity, of the necessity 
of sanctifieation. The iminitiate proceeded no farther 
thau the eloit^ter, but might behold at this modest 
distance the mysteries of the sanctuary. Several other 
vestibules, or propylsea, intervened between the cloister 
and the main building. The three gates of the church 
tronted the East, of which the central was the loftiest 
and most costly, " like a queen between her attendants." 
It was adorned with plates of brass and richly sculptored 
reliefs. Two colonnades, or aisles, ran along the main 
building, above which were windows, whiuh lighted the 
edi6ce; other buildings for the use of the ministers 
adjoined. Unfortunately, the pompous eloquence of 
Eusebius would not condescend to the vulgar details 
of measurements, and dwells only in vague terms of 
wonder at the spaciousness, the heaven-soaring loftiness 
the splendour of the interior. The roof was of beams 
from the cedars of Lebanon, the floor inlaid with "marble. 
Ill the centre rose the altar, which had already obtained 
the name of the place of sacrifice ; it was guarded from 
the approach of the pro&ne by a trellis of the most 
slender and gracefiil workmanship. Lofty seats were 
prepared for the higher orders, and benches for those of 
lower rank were arranged with regularity throughout 
the building. Tyre, no doubt, did not stand alone in 
this splendid restoration of her Christian worship ; and 
Christianity, even before her final triumph under Cou^ 
stantine, before the restitution of her endowments, and 
the munificent imperial gifts, possessed sufficient wealth 
at least to commence these costly undertakings. 



1 



I 



BOOK III. 



CHAPTEB L 



Ctntstantine. 

The reign of Conatantine the Great forms one of the 
epochs in the history of the world. It is the i^i^ofoa;- 
lera of the dissolution of the Eoman Empire ; ■'"'"''"■ 
the commencement, or rather consolidation, of a kind oi 
Eastern despotism, with a new capital, a new patriciate, 
a new constitution, a new financial system, a new, thongli 
as yet imperfect, jurisprudence, and, finally, a new re- 
ligion. Already, in the time of Diocletian, cbuigeiDtbs 
Italy had sunk into a province; Borne into ""'P'™- 
one of the great cities of the empire. The declension 
of her importance had been gradual, but inevitable ; 
her supremacy had been shaken by that slow succession 
of changes which had imperceptibly raised the relativi^ 
weight and dignity of other parts of the empire, and of 
the empire itself, as a whole, until she ceased to be the 
central point of the administration of public affairs, 
liome was no longer the heart of the social iwidnUMi 
system, from which emanated all the life and °'""'™ 
power which animated and regulated the vast and un- 
wieldy body, and to which flowed in the wealth and 
the homage of the obedient world. The admission of 
the whole empire to the rights of Boman citizenship bj 
Caracolla had dissolved tlie commanding spell which 
TOL. n. B 



,942 



DEGRADAFION OF BOMB. 



centuries of glory and conquest had attaolied to the3 
majesty of the Roman name. To be a Roman > 
no longer a privilege ; it gave no distioctive rights, ito'l 
exemptions were either taken away, or vulgarised by f 
being made common to all except the servile order. ■ 
The secret once betrayed that the imperial dignity I 
might be conferred elsewhere than in the imperial city, -j 
lowered still more the pre-enainence of Korae. From 
that time, the seat of government was at the head of 
the army. If the Emperor, proclaimed in Syria, in 
lUyria, or in Britain, condescended, without much delay, 
to visit the ancient capital, the trembling senate had 
but to ratify the decree of the army, and the Roman ' 
people to welcome, with submissive acclamations, their j 
new master, 

Diocletian had consummated the degradation of Rome, j 
by transferring the residence of the court to Nicomedla. 
He had commenced the work of reconstructing the 
empire upon a new basis. Some of his measm-es were 
vigoraus, comprehensive, and tending to the strength 
and consolidation of the social edifice ; but he had 
introduced a principle of disimion, more than powerful 
enough to counteract all the energy which he had 
infused into the executive government His fatal policy 
of appointing co-ordinate sovereigns, two Augusti, with 
powers avowedly equal, and two Cnesars, with authority 
nominally subordinate, but which, in able hands, would 
not long have brooked inferiority, had nearly dismem- 
bered the solid unity of the empire. Aa yet, 
tropiniErtiii the influence of the Roman name was com- 
manding and awful ; the provinces were 
accustomed to consider themselves as parts of one poli- 
tical confederacy ; the armies marched still under the 
same banners, were united by discipline, and as yet b^ 9 



I 



Chap. I. UKITT OF EMPIKE PRESERVED. 243 

the tmforgotten inheritance of victory from their all- 
subduing ancestoi's. In all parts of the world, every 
vestige of civil independence had long been effaced; 
centurieB of servitude had destroyed every dangeroua 
memorial of ancient dynasties or republican constitu- 
tious. Hence, tburefore, the more moderate ambition 
of erecting an independent kingdom never occurred to 
any of the rival Emperors; or, if the separation had 
been attempted, if a man of ability had endeavoured to 
partition off one great province, dependent upon its owa 
resourcea, defended by its own legions, or by a well- 
organised force of auxiliary barbarians, the age was not 
yet ripe for such a daring innovation. The whole 
empire would have resented the secession of any member 
from the ancient confederacy, and turned its concen- 
trated force against the recreant apostate from the 
majestic Unity of Imperial Rome. Yet, if this syatera 
had long prevailed, the disorganising must have finally 
triumphed over the associating principle : separate in- 
terests would have arisen ; a gradual departure from 
the uniform order of administration must have taken 
place ; a national character might have developed itself 
in different quarters ; and the vast and harmonious 
edifice would have split asunder into dJBtinct, and insu- 
lated, and at length hostile, kingdoms. 

Nothing less than a sovereign whose comprehensive 
mind could discern the exigencies of this critical period, 
nothing less than a conqueror who rested on the strength 
of successive victories over his competitoo for the 
supremacy, could have reunited, and in time, under one 
vigorous administration, the dissolving elements of the 
empire. 

Such a conqueror was Constantine ; but, reunited, the 
empire imperiously demanded a complete civil reorgan- 
B 2 



244 



HEW NOBILITT. 



iaatiou. It was not the foundation of tlie new capital 
which wronght the change in the state of the empire, 
it was the state of the empire which required a new 
capital. The ancient system of goTernment, emanating 
entirely from Kome, and preserving, with sacred re- 
verence, the old republican forms, had lost its awe ; the 
world aeinowledged the master wherever it felt the 
power. The possession of Kome added no great weight 
to the caudidate for empire, while its pretenaiong em- 
barrassed the ruhng sovereign.' The powerless senate, 
which still expected to ratiiy the imperial decrees; 
the patrician order, which bad ceased to occnpy the 
posts of hononr, and danger, and distinction ; the tiir- 
thulent populace, and the pnetorian soldiery, who still 
presnmed (o assert their superiority over the legions 
who were bravely contesting the German or the Persian 
frontier ; the forms, the intrigues, the interests, the 
factions of such a city, would not be permitted by an 
Emperor accustomed to rule with absolute dominion in 
Treves, in Milan, or in Nicomedia, to clog the free 
movements of his administration. The dosao- 
hition of the praetorian bands by Constantine, 
on his victory over Maxentius, though necessary to the 
peace, was fatal to the power, of Eome. It cut off 
one of her great though dearly-purchased distinctions. 
Around the Asiatic, or the Ulyrian, or the Gaulish 
court, had gradually arisen a new nobility, if not hitherto 
distinguished by title, yet, by service or by favour, pos- 
sessing the marked and acknowledged confidence of the 



accordii^ to the tame donbtFnl an* 
Iliority, threatedai, after his tli^l 
from Italy, to cfaange th« name of thi 



I 



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r 



Caw. I. DECADENCE OF EOMAJI RELIGION. 243 

Emperor, and filling all offices of power and of dignity — 
a nobility independent of patrician descent, or the 
tenure of property in Italy. Ability in tlie field or in 
the council, or even court intrigue, would trinnipli over 
the claims of hereditary descent ; and all that remained 
was to decorate with title, and organise into a new aria- 
tiOcracy, those who already possessed the influence and 
the authority of rant. With Emperors of provincial or 
barbarous descent naturally arose a race of military 
or civil servants, strangers to Eoman blood and to the 
Roman name. The will of the sovereign became the 
fountain of honour. New regulations of finance, and a 
jurisprudence, though adhering closely to the forms and 
the practice of the old institutions, new in its spirit and 
in the scope of many of its provisions, embraced the 
whole empire in its comprehensive sphere. It was no 
longGr Rome which legislated for the world, but the 
l^^slation which comprehended Rome among the cities 
subject to its authority. The laws were neither issued 
DOT ratified, they were only submitted to, by Rome. 

The Roman religion sank with the Roman supremacy. 
The new empire welcomed the new religion as siateotihB 
its ally and associate in the government of the Homa 
human mind. The empire lent its countenance, its 
sanction, at length its power, to Christianity. Chris- 
tianity infused throughout the empire a secret principle 
of association, which, long after it had dissolved into 
separate and conilicting masses, held together, never- 
theless, the loose and crumbling confederacy, and, at 
length, itself assuming the lest or abdicated sovereignty, 
compressed the whole into one system under a spiritual 
dominion. The Papal, after some interval of confusion 
and disorganisation, succeeded the Imperial autocracj 
over the European world. 



COSVEHaiON OF CONSTAKTINE. 



Of all historical problems, none bas been discussed ^vitb 
ii«u»s Bit 8 stronger bias of opinion, of passion, and of pre- 
rt!^"fora- jndice,accordiDgto the age, the nation, the creed 
Buntino. Qf j^Q writer, than the conversion of Constan- 
tine, and the establishment of Christianity as the religion 
of the empire. Hypocrisy, policy, superstition, divine 
iuspiratioQ, have been in turn aaaigued as the sole or 
the pi-edominant influence which, operating on the mind 
of the Emperor, decided at once the religious destiny of 
the empire. But there is nothing improbable in snp- 
posing that Constontine was actuated by concurrent, or 
even conflicting, motives ; all of which united in en- 
forcing the triumph of Christianity. There is nothing 
contradictory in the combination of the motives them- 
selveB, particularly if we consider them as operating 
with greater strength, or with successive paroxyamB, as 
it were, of influence, during the different periods in the 
life of Constantine, on the soldier, the statesman, and 
the man. The soldier, at a perilous crisis, might appeal, 
without just notions of his nature, to the tutelary power 
Bf a deity to whom a considerable part of his subjects, 
and perhaps of his army, looked up with faith or with 
awe. The statesman may have seen the -absolute 
necessity ofTiasing his new constitution on religion ; he 
may have chosen Christianity as obviously possessing 
the strongest, and a still etrengthening, hold upon the 
minds of his people. He might appreciate, with pro- 
found political sagacity, the moral influence of Chris- 
tianity, as well as its tendency to enforce peaceful, if 
not passive, obedience to civil government. At a later 
period, particularly if the circunastancee of his life threw 
him more into connexion with the Christian priesthood, 
he might gradually adopt as a religion that which had 
commanded his admiration oa a political influence. Ho 



1 

I 




Ciup. I. POSITION OF CHItiSTXjlSlTK AT THE TIME, 247 

might embrace, with ardent attachment, yet, after all, 
by no means with distinct apprehension, or implicit 
oL>edience to all its ordinances, that faith wSiich alone 
seemed to survive amid the wreck of all other religious 
systems. 

A rapid but comprehensive survey of the stnte of 
Christianity at this momentous period will explain the 
position in which it stood in relation to the civil goveru- 
menf, to the general population of the empire, and to 
the ancient religion ; and throw a clear and steady light 
upon the manner in which it obtained its political 
as well as its spiritual dominion over the Eoman 
world. 

The third century of Christianity had been prolific in 
religious revolutions. In the East, the silent Ke^i-u nf 
progress of the Gospel had been suddenly i^in. 
arrested ; Christianity had been thrown back with irre- 
sistible violence on the Roman territory. An ancient 
religion, connected with the great political changes in 
the sovereignty of the Persian kingdom, reiived in all 
the vigour and enthusiasm of a new creed ; it was 
received as the associate and main support of the state. 
A hierarchy, numcTOUs, powerful, and opulent, with all 
the union and stability of a hereditary caste, sti-ength- 
ened by large landed possessions, was reinvested with 
an authority almost co-ordinate with that of the 
sovereign. The restoration of Zoroastrianism, as the 
established and influential religion of Persia, is perhaps 
the only instance of tlie vigorous revival of a Pagan 
religion.'' Of the native rehgion of the Parthians, 

^ The maUriala liir tba view ofthe I mm; AoqiieEil du Peiron; Zends' 
reetoratiou of th« PendsD religion me Tents, 3 vola. ; the GennBQ trwiBlBtioa 
chiefly daivtd from tlie follawing of Dq' Perron, by Kleuter, with Fery 
Kmrcu: — Hyde. Da RiUiiOM Peraa- i valiublB Tolame* of >ppenrlii (Aa. 



248 RELIGIOUS KEVOLUTIONS, 

little, it' anything, is known. They were a St^-thiai 
race, who overrau and formed a ruling aristocracy ovef 
the remains of the older Persian, and the more modem 
Grecian civilisation. The Scythian, or Tartar, or Tur- 
coman tribes, who liave perpetually, from China 
ward, invaded and subdued the more polished nations, 
liaye never attempted to force their rude and shapeless 
deities, their more vulgar Shamanism, or even the 
Buddhism which in its simpler form has prevailed 
among them to a great extent, on the nations OTer 
which they have ruled. The ancient Magian priesthood 
remained, if with diminished power, in great nnmbei^ 
and not without extensive possessions in the eastern 
provinces of the Parthian empire. The temples raised 
by the Greek euccesaors of Alexander, whether to Grecian 
deities, or blended with the Tsabaism or the Nature- 
worsJiip of Babylonia or Syria, continued to posgeas their 
undiminished honours, with their ample endowments 
and their sacerdotal colleges. Some vestiges of the dei- 
fication of the kings of the line of Arsaces seem to be 
discerned, but with doubtful certainty. 

The earliest legendary history of Christianity assigns 
Parthia as the scene of Apostolic labours ; it was the 
province of St. Thomas. But in the intermediate 
region, the great Babylonian province, there is the 
strongest evidence that Christianity had made an early, 
a rapid, and a Buccessfol progress. It was the residence, 
at least for a certain period, of the Apostle St. Peta." 
With what success it conducted its contest with Judaism, 
it is impossible to conjecture ; for Judaism, which, after 

hiiDg) ; De Guigniant's TisiuktiDo cf J to Gibbon when lie coiDposed his bril- 
CiTuzen Sjmbolik ; Mali'olm'a UibIoij liant cbHpUr on thi> subject. 
}f Persu ; Unrea, Ideeo, I • Cumpnn Hole to vol. i, p. 63. 

SuDiB of thew HDrOB were bde Dpea 1 



1 

i 



I 



f 



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I 



CaiP. I, BESTORATION OF ZOROASTRIASISM. 249 

the second rebellion in the reign of Ha^lrian, main- 
tained but a permissive and preearious esistence in 
Palestine, flourished in the Babylonian province with 
aomething of a national and independent character. 
The Seech-Glutha, or Prince of the Captivity, far sur- 
passed in the splendour of his court the Patriarch of 
Tiberias ; and the activity of their schools of learning in 
Kahardea, in Sura, aud in Pnmbeditha, is attested by 
the vast compilation of the Babylonian Talmud.* Nor 
does the Christianity of this region appear to have suf- 
fered from the persecuting spirit of the Magian hierarchy 
during the earlier conflicts for the Mesopotamian pro- 
vinces between the amis of Rome and Persia. Tliough 
one bishop ruled the united communities of Selencia 
and Ctesiphon, the numbers of Christians in the rest of 
the province were probably far from inconsiderable. 

It was in the ancient dominions of Darina and of 
Xerxea that the old rehgion of Zoroaster re- 
assumed its power and authority. No sooner otPenfnn 
had Aideschir Babhegan (the Artaxerxes of byArswchir 
the Greeks) destroyed the last remains of the 
foreign Parthian dynasty, and reorganised the iionofzo. 
dominion of the native Persian kings, from 
the borders of Charismia to the Tigris {the Persian 
writers assert to the Euphrates),^ than he hastened to 
environ his tlirone with the Magian hierarchy, and to 
re-establiah the Bacerdotal order in all its former dignity. 
But an ancient rehgion, which has sunk into obscurity, 
viill not regain its full influence over the popular mind, 
unless reinvested with divine authority : intercourse with 
heaven must be renewed ; the sanction and ratification 
of the deity must be public aud acknowledged. Wonder 




260 CHAEACTKRiSTlCS OF ZOROASTHIANISM. B<xK Itl.^ 

and miracle ure as necessary to the reyival of an old, aa 
to the estabhshment of a new, religion. In the records 
of the Zoroastriau fiuth, which are preserved in the 
ancient language of the Zend, may be traced many 
singular provisionB which bear the mark of great anti- 
quity, and show the transition from a pastoral to an 
agricultural life.' The cultivation of tlie soil ; the pro* 
pi^ation of fruit-trees, nowhere so luxuriant and variouB 
as in the districts which probably gave birtli to the great 
religious legislator of the East, Balk, and the country 
of the modem Afghans, and the destruction of noxiotis 
animals, are among the primary obligations enforced on 
the followers of Zoroaster. A grateful people might 
look back with the deepest veneration on the author of 
a religious code so wisely beneficent ; the tenth of the 
produce would be no disproportionate offering to the 
prieBthood of a religion which had thua turned civilisa- 
tion into a duty, and given a Divine sanction to the fii-st 
principles of human wealth and happiness. But a new 
impulse was necessary to a people which had long 
passed tbia state of transition, and were only reassuming> 
the possessions of their ancestors, and reconstnicting' 
their famous monarchy. Zoroastrianiam, like all other 
religions, had split into numerous sects ; and an autho- 
ritative exposition of the Living Word of Zoroastet 
could alone restore its power and its harmony to the^ 
re-established Magianism of the j-ealm of Ardeschir. 
vitfoo ot Erdiviraph was the Magian, designated, by his 
Etdifiraph. blameless innocence from his mother's womb, 
to renew the intercourse with the Divinity, and to 
unfold, on the authority of inapiration, the secrets oi 



I 




VISION OF EflDIVlRAPn. 



2Si 



heaveu and hell. Porty (according to one account, eighty 
thousand) of the Magian priesthood, the Archimage, 
who resided in Bactria, the Deaters and the Mobeds,' 

1 assembled to witness and sanction the important 
ceremony. They were successively reduced to 40,000, 
to 4000, to 400, to 40, to 7 : the acknowledged merit 
of Erdiyiraph gave him the pre-eminence among the 
seven.* Having passed through the strictest ablutions, 
and drunk a powerful opiate, he was covered with a 
white linen, and laid to sleep. Watched by sei-en of 
the nobles, including the king, he slept for seven days 
and nights ; and, on his reawakening, the whole nation 
listened with believing wonder to bis exposition of the 
faith of Oromazd, which was carefully written down by 
an attendant scribe, for the beneiit of posterity." 

A hierarchy which suddenly regains its power, after 
CGuturies of obscurity, perhaps of oppression, 
will not be scrupulous as to the means of ofUBM»eiflQ 
giving strength and permanence to its do- 
minion. With AKleschir, the restoration of the Persian 
people to their I'ank among the nations of the earth, by 
the reinfusion of a national spirit, was the noble object 
of ambition ; the re-estabiishment of a national rehgion, 
as the strongest and most enduring bond of union, was 
an essential part of hia great scheme ; but a national 
religion, thus associated with the civil polity, is neces- 
sarily exclusive, and impatient of the rivalry of other 
creeds. Intolerance lies in the very nature of a religion 



C All tIi«M numbeis, it ihoald be 
riBerved, are multipleg of 40, the in- 
deGuite uiunbir tbroaghout Ote Eut. 
(See Bredow's DisHitatlati, uneied 
totheiiewe(lilionofSyiioel]iu;Byuiit, 
HIA Bonn.) The recunnU of Zoroa*- 



reduBfii 1q Hven, Ibe sacrrf ramber 
with the ZoroastiinD, M with the re- 
ligion of the Old TeBtaoieDt, 

k Hjd« (riom Feniui luthoiitiM) 
De BeliE. Fart, p STB it Kqq. 



252 



HAGLO HIEEAKCHICAL DtTOLERAJSXE. Book Iff.' 



which, dividing tlie whole world into the reidm of two 
conflicting principles, raises one part of mankind into a 
privileged order, as followers of the Grood principle, and 
condemns the other half as the irreclaimable slaves of 
the Evil One. The national worBhip is identified with' 
that of Oromazd ; and the kingdom of Oromazd must be 
purified from the intrusion of the followers of Ahriman. 
The foreign relations, so to speak, of the Persiatt 
monarchy, according to their old poetical history, are 
strongly coloured by their deep-rooted religions opinions; 
Their implacable enemies, the pastoral Tartar or Tureo* 
man tribes, inhabit the realm of darkness, and at times 
invade and desolate the kingdom of light, till soma 
mighty monarch, Kaiomers, or some redoubtable herO) 
Ituatan, reasserts his majesty, and revenges the losses, 
of the kingdom of Oromazd. Iran and Turan are the 
representatives of the two conflicting worlds df light 
and darkness. In the same spirit, to expel, to pereecnt^ 
the followers of other religions, was to expel, to trample 
on, the followers of Arhiman. This edict of ArdescJiii 
closed all the temples but those of the fire-worshipper^ 
— only eighty thousand followers of Ahriman, including 
the worshippers of foreign religions, and the less ortho- 
dox believera in Zoroaatrianiam, remained to infect tha 
purified region of Oromazd.' Of the loss sustained by 
i>™™«!'>n Christianity during this conflict, in the pro« 
ttyioPa*!. per dominions of Persia, and the number d 
churches which shared the fate of tJie Partliian and 





ration of tlw Pemiiin intn^irdif and 




Klii;i0D, ha> nid that in thru conflict 




'• ibe avDnJ uf AriitMts (escIi was die 


bu likewise quoted intboritles for Uw 


nsme given by llie Orlcntala to (lie 


perMCation of Artuena which raliU 


Polyth.™ ind philosophy of th.. 




Greeks) WM Basily broken," Isuaptct 





I 



I 



Chip, I. CONNEXION OF THRONE AND HIEEARCHT. 253 

■Grecian temples, there ia no record. The pereecutioua 
by the followers of Zoroaster are to be traced, at a 
later period, only in Armenia and in tlie Babylonian 
province ; but Persia, from this time until the fiercer 
persecutions of their own brethren forced the Nestorian 
Christians to overleap every obstacle, presented a stem 
and insuperable barrier to the pn^resa of Christianity/ 
It cut off all connexion with the Chriatian communities 
(if communities there were) in the remoter East." 

Aideschir bequeathed to hia royal descendtaits the 
solemn charge of maintaining the indissoluble ctmneiion 
union of the Magiau religion with the state : ^iaf™* 
" Never forget that, as a long, yon are at once 'J'"^?' 
the protector of religion and of your country. Consider 
■ the altar and the tlirone as inseparable; they must 
always sustain each other. A sovereign without religion 
is a tyrant ; and a people who have none, may be deemed 
the most monstrous of societies. Beligion may exist 
without a state, but a state cannot exist without reli- 
gion : it is by holy laws that a pohtical association can 
alone be bound. You should be to your people an 
example of piety and virtue, but without pride or osten- 
tation."" The kings of the race of Sassan accepted 
and fulfilled the sacred trust; the Magian hierarchy 
encircled and supported the kingly power of Persia. 



k Soiomei], indeed, ssHiis IhntGiris- 
tiiuity waa Gnl idItdiIuchI into Ike 
Pei-sian dominioiu at a later period, 
from their mtereon™ witli Osroene 
and Armenia. Bot it iji reiy impiu- 
bflbJB that the active zeal of the Chns- 
11.101 in the first iigea of the religion 
Id not have taken advantage nf 



Elamites," L e. Jews inhaljitiiig thoac 
countries, are mentJoiied ns among the 
CDDFerta on the dsy of Pentetsst. 

- Tlie date of the earliest Chriitian 

disciuted in B^tn, Das alte lodifn, i. 



254 A£MESU TOE FmST CHBISTIA^ KINGDOM. I 

They formed the great coand] of the state. Foreign I 
religions, if tolerated, were watched with jealous se^ 
rity. Magianism was estabUshed at the point of t 
sword in those parts of Armenia which were subjugated I 
by the Persian kings. When Mesopotamia was incladed 1 
within the pale of the Persian dominions, the Jews were^ 
at times, exposed to the eererest oppressions; the burial { 
of the dead was peculiarly offensive to the usages of the I 
fire-worshippers. Maui was alike rejected, and perse- | 
cuted by the Christian and the Magian priesthood ; and | 
the barbarous execution of the Christian bishops, who 
ruled over the Babylonian sees, demanded at a later 
period the interference of Constantme." 

But while Persia thus fiercely repelled Christianitj 
AnDoniiih* from its frontier, upon that frontier arose a 
ungiim. Christian state." Armenia was the first country 
which embraced Christianity as the religion of the king, 
the nobles, and the people. During the early ages of 
the empire, Armenia had been an object of open con- 
tention, or of political intrigue, between the conflicting ' 
powers of Partbia and Eoma The adoption of Chris- 
tianity as the religion of the state, while it united the 
interests of the kingdom, by a closer bond, with the 
Christian empii-e of Rome (for it anticipated the honour 
of being the first Christian state by only a few years), 
added, to its perilous situation on the borders of the two 
empires, a new cause for the implacable hostility of ' 
Persia. Every successful invasion, and every subtle 
negotiation to establish the Persian predominance in 
Armenia, was marked by the most relentless and 

" Sojomen, ii. 9, 10, Compere, on j Marlyr. Or. et Omid. Roma, 1746. 
■hew parsecutien! of llie Christiana, t St. Martin, UdniOTres anr I'At- ! 
Uaokcr, Aohang zum Zendarttta, p. m^k, L 405, 406, be NaUs lo .' 
192 H Hq., with Attaaaai, Act. I Boa, H»t. dn Empmnnv i. 76. 



QUP.L AEUENIAJ, HISTOET. 255 

Ban^nary persecutions, which were endured with the 
combined dignity of Christian and patriotic heroism by 
the afflicted people. The Vartobed, or Patriarch, waa 
always the first Tietim of Persian conquest, the first 
leader to raise the fallen standard of indepeudence. 

The Armenian histories, written, almost without ex- 
ception, by the priesthood, in order to do honour to their 
native country by its early reception of Christianity, 
have included the Syrian kingdom of Edessa within ita 
borders, and assigned a place to the celebrated Abgar 
iu the line of their kings. The personal correspondence 
of Abgar with the Divine author of Christianity is, of 
course, incorporated in this earJy legend. But though, 
no doubt, Christianity had made considerable progress, 
at the commencement of the third century, the govern- 
ment of Armenia was still sternly and irreconcdeably 
Pagan. Khosrov L imitated the cruel and im- 
pious Pharaoh. He compelled the Christians, 
for a scanty stipend, to labour on the pubh'c works. 
Many obtained the glorious crown of martyrdom." 

Gregory the Dlmninator was the Apostle of Armenia. 
The birth of Gregory was darkly connected otpgoirthe 
with the murder of the reigning king, the J""™'"""''- 
almost total extirpation of the royal race, and the 
subjugation of his country to B foreign yoke. He was 
the son of Anah, the assassin of bis sovereign. ' The 
murder of Khosrov, the valiant and powerful king 
of Armenia, is attributed to the jealous ambition of 
Ardescbir, the first king of Persia.' Anah, of a noble 
Armenian race, was bribed, by the promise of vast 



1 Fatlier Chamich, Hialory of Ar- I Hist Arm&. i. 154, a 

D-.fiii*, i. 153, tisnalnMd bj AvdiU. thoritia. St. MartlD, 1 

' Mowa Cborea. 64, 71 ; Cbimldi, I I'AnuAiIe, i. 303, iic 



MDEDEE OF KHOSBOV. 



BOOK ml 



wealth and the second place in the empire, to conspire I 
against the life of Khosrov. Pretending to take refuge ' 
in the Armeuiau dominions from the pereeeution erf J 
Kin g Ardescliir, he was hoapitably received in the city 1 
of Valarebapat He struck theking to the heart, and 
Murder of lle<i- The Armenian soldiery, in their fury, 
'^'™'''- pursued the assassin, who was drowned, during ] 
hia flight, in the river Araxes. The vengeance of the i 
eoldiers wreaked itself upon bis innocent family ; ' the I 
infant Gregory alone was saved by a Christian axaae, [ 
who took refuge in Cffisarea. There the future Apostle 
was baptized, and {thus runs the legend) by divine 
revelation received the name of Gregory. Ardeschir 
reaped all the advantage of the treachery of Anah, and 
Armenia sauk into a Persian province. The conqueror 
consummated the crime of his base instrument ; the 
whole family of Ehosrov was put to death, except Tiri- 
datea, who fled to the Eoman dominions, and one sister, 
Khosrovedught, who was afterwards instrumental in the 
introduction of Christianity into the kingdom. Tiridatea 
served with distinction in the Roman armies of Diocletian, 
and seized the favourable opportunity of reconquering 
his hereditary throne. The re-establishment of Ai-menia 
as a friendly power was an important event in the 
Eaatcm policy of Rome; the simultaneous conversion I 
of the empire and its Eastern ally to the new religion J 
Btrengthened the bonds of union by a common religious J 
interest. 

Gregory re-entered his native country in the train j 
^wate* of the victorious Tiridates, But Tiridates was I 
ArmEDia. a bigotcd adherent to the ancient religion of .1 
his country. This religion appears to have been a J 



■ AcfflMiiinf' to £t. Martin, two children of A] 



PSttSECOTION OF GREGOBY. 



I 



^1 mingled form of cornipt Zoroastrianism and Grecian, 
" or rather Oriental, Nature-worship, with some rites of 
Scythian origin. Their chief deity was Aramazd, the 
Ormuzd of the Magian syBtem, but their temples were 
crowded with statues, and their altars reeked with animal 
sacrifices ; usages revolting to the purer Magianism of 
Pereia.' The Babylonian impersonation of the female 
principle of generation, Anaitis or Anahid, was one .of 
their most celebrated divinities; and at the funeral 
of their great King Artaces many persons had immo- 
lated themselves, after the Scythian or Getic custom, 
upon his body. 

It was in the temple of Anaitis, in the province of 
Efeelias, that Tiridates offered the sacrifice of thanks- 
giving for his restoration to his hereditary throne. He 
commanded Gregory to assist in the idolatrous worshiji. 
The Ciiristian resolutely reftised, and endured, pemwntiDn 
according to the Armenian history, twelve dif- ''f'^"«°'T- 
ferent kinds of torture. It was disclosed to the exas- 
perated monarch, that the apostate from the national 
religion was son to the assassin of his father, Gregory 
was plunged into a deep dungeon, where he languished 
for fourteen years, supported by the faithful charity of a 
Ciiristian female. At the close of the fourteen years, a 
pestilence, attributed by the Christian party to the 
Divine vengeance, wasted the kingdom of Armenia. Tin- 
virgin sister of Tiridates, Khosrovedught (the daughter 
of Khoarov) had embraced the faith of the Gospel By 
Divine revelation (thus speaks the piety of the priestly 
historians), she advised the immediate release of Gregory. 
"What Heaven had commanded. Heaven bad approved 
by wonders. The Kin g himself, afflicted by the malady. 



PEHSECOTION BY CHHISTIANS. 



looxHt^ 



was healed by the Clu'istian missionary. The pestilence 
convenimor ceased. The king, the nobles, the people, almoBt 
oa KiQB. simultaneously submitted to baptism, Armenia 
became at once a Christian kingdom, Gregory took 
the highest rank, as Archbishop of the kingdom. Prieata 
were invited from Greece and Syria; four hundi-ed 
bishops were consecrated ; churches and rebgious houses 
arose in every quarter ; the Christian festivals and days 
of reh'gio'JS observance were established by lav^. 

But the severe truth of history must make the melan- 
choly acknowledgement that the Gospel did not finally 
triumph without a fierce and sanguinary strife. The 
province of Dara, tlie sacred region of the Armenians, 
crowded with their national temples, made a stern and 
PoBooiiion determined resistance. The prieste fought for 
Qruuuii. their altars with desperate courage, and it was 
only with the sword that churches could be planted in 
that irreclaimable district." In the war waged by 
Mazimin against Tiridates, in which the ultimate aim 
of the Roman Emperor, according to Eusebius, was the 
suppression of Christianity, he may have been invited 
and encouraged by the rebellious Paganism of the sub- 
jects of Tiridates, 

Towards the close of the third century, while there- 
lision of the East was undergoing these signal 
revolutions, and the antagonistic creeds of 
Magianism and Christianity were growing up inttipoweiDi^ 



» la the vaj curiooi «rtiMt from 


V/bo liei here tn ble gnne, 




ind'^tbhtaiiimmcn. 


ZuDob, Oxae is sn account of this dill 
war, Th« fblloiring Inscriptlao eom- 


And thb bMtiB we tougbl for Hie Godl 
or KisiBB ami tit CbrUit. 




See ZalKhrlft fir die Kunde 






Tbe [ado or ttae innla wu Ai^in, ILe 


»jq. 


ciii<fo[(beF[l«ttK»d. 






I 



MAXICHEISM. 259 

fill and hostile systems, and assuming an important in- 
flaencG on the political affairs of Asia ; while the East and 
the West thus began that strife of centuries which subse- 
quently continued id a more fierce and implacable form in 
the conflict between Christianity and Mobammedaniam; 
a bold and ambitiouB adventurer in the career 
of religious change" attempted to unite the 
conflicting elements ; to reconcile the hostile genius of 
the East and of the West ; to fuse together, in one 
comprehensive scheme, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and 
apparently the Buddhism of India. It is singular to 
trace the doctrines of the most opposite systems and of 
remote regions assembled together and harmonised in 
the vast Eclecticism of Mani/ From his native 
Persia he derived hiaDualian, hia antagonistic Kmraesofiiui 
worlds of light and darkness; and from Ma- 
gianiam, likewise, hia contempt of outward temple aud 
splendid ceremonial. From Gnosticism, or rather from 
universal Orientaliam, he drew the insepamble admixture 
of physical and moral notions, the eternal hostility 



■ Besides the origiiul auUioritice, 1 

Te consalled, tbc Mani and his doo 

jWb, BeaUBohre, Hist, dn Manich^ 

DC ; D'Herbeial, Hrt. JIani ; l.ardaer, 

I CWibilityof Gospel History; Mosheim, 

I D> Keb. Christ, sate Const. MagDun ; 

[ JUMer,Hi8t.daGnoBticime,ii.35l. I 

anlj seoa Baar's able Manichaische 

I BdigiDiu Syatnu, after this chapter 

1 had antiuipated, though 

not followed out so closely, the reU- 

(jonship to Buddhisin, mach of nhich, 

however, is evidentlj the common 

pnuDdwork of all OrientnliEin. 

r Augusiine, id Taiioiu paasagei, 
at fully in what it given »t m 
(rem the book of the FaaD<h 



tion, De Nat. Botii, p. 515. Compm'e 
Beuusobre, Tol. if. 386, who seems to 
CDDsider it an ahstrart from some forgeJ 
or apiiriooa woik. Probably mnch of 
Mini's system was allegorical, bnt how 
mach, his disciples probably did oott 
snrl his adferearles would Dot, kDow. 
See also the moet curious passage about 
the Mnniiihetm raetempsychosit, in tlie 
statemeat of Tyrbo, in the Dispulatio 
Archelai et ManeUs, apud Routb, Re- 
liqoiffi Sacra, vol. if. 

The moEt siDgular fact is that these 
obatloate idolatera were uf Indian 
descent, and were distinguisked if 



:iliC SOUBCES OF MANI*8 DOCTHISES. BooKUin 

between Mind and Matter, the rejection of Judaism, ajid 
the identification of the God of the Old Testament witli 
the Evil Spirit, the distinction between Jesus and the 
Christ, with the Docetism, or the unreal death of the 
incorporeal Christ From Cabalism, through Gnosticiun, 
came the primal man, the Adam Csedmon of that system, 
and (if it be a genuine part of this system) the assump- 
tion of beautiful human forms, those of gracefiil boys 
and attractive virgins, by the powers of hght, aud their 
union with the male and female spirits of darkness, 
i'rom India, he took the Emanation theory {all light 
was a part of the Deity, and in one sense the soul of 
the world), tlie metempsychosis, the triple division of 
human souls {the one the pure, which reascended at 
once, and was reunited to the primal lifjht ; the second 
the semi-pure, which, having passed through a purgatorial 
pivceas, I'eturued to earth, to pass through a second 
ordeal of life ; the third, of obstinate and irreclaimable 
evil) : from India, perhaps, came his Homophoms, as 
the Greeks called it, his Atlas, who supported the earth 
upon his shoulders, and his Splenditeneus, the circum- 
ambient air. From Chaldea, he borrowed the poww of 
astral influences; and he approximated to the solar 
worship of expiring Paganism : Christ, the Mediator, 
like tlie Mithra of his countryman, bad his dwelling in 
the sun.' 

From his native country Mani derived the simple 
diet of fruits and herbs ; from the Buddhism of India, 
his respect for animal life, which was to be slain neither 
tor food nor for sacrifice ; ' from all the anti-materialist. 



• D'Hert«1at,Toc"Klsnl." I ibr food, Sa In thoo ulso ttwn 

■ Ibid. AnguEtine s\ya Umt ihfj whs a uvrtaiD portion of life, wbich, 
Fpt when tba; plucked legebiblm I uccardiog to Uani, was a put of tlu 



Chap. I. THEIE RELATION TO CHRISTIANITY. 



261 



sects or religions, the abhorrence of every sensual indul- 
gence, even the bath as well as the banquet ; the pro* 
scription, or, at least, the disparagement of marriage. 
And the whole of these foreign and extraneous tenets, 
his creative imagination blended with his own form of 
Christianity ; for, so completely are they mingled, that 
it is difJScult to decide whether Christianity or Magianism 
formed the groundwork of Mani's system. From Chris- 
tianity he derived not, perhaps, a strictly Nicene, but 
more than an Arian, Trinity. His own system was the 
completion of the imperfect revelation of the Grospel. 
He was a man invested with a divine mission, — the 
Paraclete (for Mani appears to have distinguished between 
the Paraclete and the Holy Spirit), who was to consum- 
mate the great work auspiciously commenced, yet un- 
fulfilled by the mission of Jesus.^ Mani had twelve 
apostles. His Ertang, or Gospel, was intended to super- 
sede the four Cliristian Evangelists, whose works, though 
valuable, he averred had been interpolated with many 
Jewish fables. The Acts, Mani altogether rejected, as 
announcing the descent of the Paraclete on the Apostles.'^ 
On the writings of St. Paul he pronounced a more 



Deity. « Dicitis enim dolorem sen- 
tire frnctum, cum de arb<H« carpitar, 
sentire dnm condditor, cum teritor, 
cum coquitur, cuiA manditur. Cnjus, 
porro dementiae est, pios se rideri relle, 
quod ab animaliom interfectioDe se 
teroperent, cum omnes snas escas eas- 
dem animas habere dicunt, quibus ut 
putant, viventibus, tanta yulnera et 
manibus et dentibus ingeraut.'* An- 
gustin. contra Faust, lib. tL p. 205, 
206. This is pure Buddhism. 

b Lardner, following Beausobre, oon- 
liders the aooount of Hani's predeces- 



sors, Scythianus and Terebinthus, or 
Buddha, idle fictions. The Tirgin birth 
assigned to Buddha, which appears to 
harmonise with the great Indian My- 
thos of the origin of Buddhism, might 
warrant a conjecture that this is an 
Oriental tiudition of the Indian ongin 
of some of Mani s doctrines, dictated by 
Greek ignorance. I now find this con- 
jecture followed out and illustrated 
with copious learning by Banr. 

* Lardner (y. 11. 183) suggests 
other reasons for the rqjection of the 
ActA. 



2B2 



HANI'S PAIXTIKGS. 



favOTmihle Bentence, Bat his Ertang, it 13 said, 
not merely the work of a prophet, but of a painter ; 
among his variouB accompliBhiuentE, Matii excelled id 
Hiipunt- that art. It was richly iUustrated by pictures, 
'"**" which commanded the wonder of the age; 
while his followera, in devout admiration, studied the 
tenets of their master ia the splendid images, as well as 
in the sublime language, of the Marvellous Book. If 
tliia be true, since the speculative character of Mani's 
chief tenets, their theogonical, if it may be so said, 
extramundane character, lay beyond the proper province 
of the painter (the imitation of existing beings, and that 
idealism which, though elevating its objects to an unreal 
dignity or beauty, is nevertheless faithful to the truth 
of nature), this imagery, with which his book was iUu- 
minated, was probably a rich system of Oriental sym- 
bolism, which may have been transmuted by the blind 
zeal of hia followers, or the misapprehension of his 
adversaries, into some of his more fanciful tenets. The 
reh'gion of Persia was fertile in these emblematic figures, 
if not their native source ; and in the gorgeous illiimi- 
nated manuscripts of the East, often full of allegorical' 
devices, we may discover, perhaps, the antitypes of the 
Ertang of Mani." 

Mani (I blend together and harmonise as far as pos- 
sible the conflicting accounts of the Greeks and Asiatics) 






* It appears, I thiDk, from Augus- 
tine, that all the splendid images of the 
toepti'ed king croirned with flowers, 
the tiplsDdit«aetia and the Homophnrui, 
wereBllegDricalljiRlerpreted: "Si mm 
aunt cni^mata raliouis, phaDtaamnta 
(tint cogitationlj, aut vecordia furaris. 
SiveroaHUgtnalipaaedicuntnr." ConliB 
Fsuat. IV, p. 277. The eitraol from 



the " amatory aong " (Contra Fa 
IT, 5], with tie twel™ ages (the g 
cycle of 12.000 yenrsl singing and 
casting flowers upou the eTeiiastlD^ 
sceptred king; Uie twclta gods (the 
signs of the zodiac), and the iuaU of 
angels, is eridentlf tlie poetry, not Um 
theologj, of the syileul. 



t Chat.L 



LIFE OF MASL 



^K Chai 

H was of Persian birth,' of the sacred race of the Magi. He 

H wore the dresa of a. Persian of distinction, the 

H lofty Babylonian sandale, the mantle of azure 

H blue, the parti-coloured trousers, and he bore the ebony 

■ staff in his hand/ He was a proficient in the learning 

■ of his age and countrj', a mathematician, and had made 
I aglohe; hQwasdeeplyskilled,a9appearafromhiBsyBtem, 
W in the theogonical mysteries of the East, and so well 

versed in the Christian Scriptures that he was said to 
have been, and indeed he may at one time have been, 
a Christian priest, in the province of Ahoriaz that bor- 
dered on Babylonia.^ He began to propagate his 
doctrines during the reign of Shah-poor, but the son of 
Ardeshir would endure no invasion upon tho established 

tMagianism.'' Mani fled from the wrath of his sovereign 
into Turkesthau ; from thence he is said to have 
Tisited Indiaj and even China.' In Turkeathan, he 
withdrew himself from the society of men, like Moham- 
med in the cave of Hira,'' into a grotto, through which 
flowed a fountain of water, and in which provision for a 
year had been secretly stored. His followers believed 



* Hi> Inrth i> nnigried bj the Chnm- 
ide of Etiessa to tbe yrar -239. Beun- 

' Beauu>bre»whoisipc]tned tosdmit 
tiie g*niiinenf« of this description, in 
the Acti of Archelana, hae tsken piins 
to hhoif that ttiere vna nnthing differ- 
ing from the ordinsry Peraian dress. 
Vol, i. p. 97. 4c 

I In the Acts of Archelnus. he <s 



onsiJers the stoiy of Ihff 



Invented points of similitude between 
liieir prophet and " the inipous Sad- 
ducee," Hi he is cnlled in the Koran. 



Itood noGreeli.bti 



puled in Sjriai;. 



AKTAGONISTIC DUALISM. 



okIbII 



that he had ascended into heaven, to eommime with the 
Deity. At the end of the year, he reappeared, and dis- 
played Ms Ertang, embeniebed with its paintings, as 
the Divine revelation.™ 

Id the theory of Mani, the one Supreme, who hovered 
in inacressible and uninflnential distance over the vfhole 
of the CrDOKtic systems, the Bruhm of the Indians, and 
the more vague and abstract Zeraane Akerene of Zoro- 
astriauism, liolds no place. The groundwork of his 
system is an original and irreconcileable Dualism." 
The two antagonistic worlds of light and darkness, of 
spirit and matter, existed from eternity, separate, 
unmingled, nn approaching, ignorant of each other's 
existenca" The kingdom of h'ght was held by God 
the Father, who "rejoiced in his own proper eternity, 
and comprehended in himself wisdom and vitality;" 
his most glorious kingdom was founded in a light and 
blessed region, which could not be moved nor shaken. 
On one side of his most illustrious and holy territory 
was the land of darkness, of vast depth and extent. 



■ BeaiiBObre (i, 191, 192) wonld 
find the Ca£caT at which, BCEordiDg to 
the eitant,bnt much contested, iqwrt, 
the meminable conference between 
Arcbelaus nud Mani was held, at Ca^h- 
gir in Turkeftluui. But, Independent 
of liie impi-obnttility nf a Christian 
hishq) settled in Turkathan, tlie whole 
bisUiry iE full of diffiuulCiee, and nothing 
B le» likely than that the report of 
euch a conference should reach tlie 
Greek or Sjriaa ChristianB tirough 
the habile leiritorj of Ferniu 

" Epiphauiua girffi these words ta 



iyaflii' Hal jranii', tdIj Traam igpat 
ivaifria, &1S KetT& fiftSiy iviKOiifovy 
Birtpov Btniptfit Epiphan. HsmL 
livi. U. 

" Hie (juidem in eieu-dio fuerunt 
duffi substantiffi a wse diretsK. Et 
Inminis quidem inperiam teoebat 
DeliB Pater, in suft sanct^ atirpe per- 
petauB, in yirtute m^nificus, natuift 
ipe& varus, ntemltiUB propria semper 
eisultans, contineus apud se sapientiun 
et Kiuus vitalea . . . Ito aulem fnn- 
data suntejiiBdemsplendidiseunaregna 



twen(r-l 






1 hutan 



a boul») on the MfSteries: 
9fb! kbI Cxti, ^i kill rrici' 



nulla unquun aut 01011 
isint. Apud Augui 
inich.c 13,0.16. 



THE AKCHETYPAL ADAM. 



266 



inhabited by fiery bodies, and pestiferous n 
Civil dissensions agitated the world of darkness ; the 
defeated faction fled to the heights or to the estreme 
verge of their world." They beheld with amazement, 
and with envy, the beautiful and peaceful regions of 
light.' They determined to invade the delightful realm ; 
and the prima! man, the archetypal Adam, was formed 
to defend the borders against this irrnption of the hostile 
powera. He was armed with hia five elements, opposed 
to those which formed the realm of darkoesa. The 
primal man waa in dauger of discomfiture in the long 
and fearful strife, had not Oromazd, the great power of 
tlie world of light, sent the living spirit to hia assistance.' 
The powers of darkness retreated ; but they bore away 
some particles of the divine light, and tlie extrication of 
t^eee particles (portions of the Deity, according to the 
subtile materitdiBni of the system) is the object of the 
long and almost interminable strife of the two principles. 
Thns, part of the Divinity was interfused through the 
whole of matter ; light waa, throughout all visible ex- 
istence, commingled with darkness.' Mankind was the 



r The realm of dirkiiess was dh 
into five distinct circles, which 
remind hs of Dante's hefi. 1. Of 
inliDH« daAnaB, perpetually esa 



lis. tliat of fienenndbi 
with tfaeir prion aod llieir 
. 4. A fitrj but oomiptible 
n of destroying fire), 



Ep. E.und.TOieL 
■ !.14,n, 



August! 

1 The world of Jarkueu, loeoriSug 
tn nne statenient, cleft the world of 
light like a wed)^ (AuguElin. oonCr. 
Faust, iv. 2); fuxnidiDg to mutiiar 
(Titus Boalnmsis, i. 7), it occupied 
the MUthem quarter of the Dniveree. 
Tht>:, as Baur observo. ia Zoroutriui- 
iam. Bundehnch, port ill. p. 62. 

' Theodoret, Hsret. Fab. i. 26. 

• Epiphan. Hseret. liTl. T8. Tltna 
BoitreiiiiB, AuguBbin. de Hicret. c 46. 

■ The eeloitial powen, during tb< 
long V ' ' 




EVE AN INFEEIOK CREATION. 



creation or the offspring of the great principle of dark-! 
ness, after this stolen and ethereal light had become 
incorporated with hia dark and material being. Man 
was formed in the image of the primal Adam ; hig 
nature waa threefold, or perhaps dualistic; the body, 
tlie concupiscent or sensual soul (which may have been 
the influence of the body on the soul), and the pure, 
celestial, and intellectual spirit. Eve was of inferior, 
of darker, and more material origin ; for the creating 
Arclion, or spirit of evil, had expended all the light, or 
soul, upon man. Her beauty was the fatal tree of 
Paradise, for which Adam was content to iall. It waa 
by this union that the sensual or concupiscent sonl 
triumphed over the pure and divine spirit ;" and it was 
by marriage, by sexual union, that the darkening race 
was propagated. The intermediate, the visible world, 
which became the habitation of man, waa the creation 
of the principle of good, by bis spirit. This primal 
principle subsisted in trinal unity (whether from eternity 
might, perhaps, have been as fiercely agitated in the 
Manichean as in the Christian schools) ; the Christ, the 
first efflux of the God of Light, would have been defined 
by the Manichean aa in the Nicene Creed, as Light of 
Light; he was self-Bubsistent, endowed with all the 
perfect attributes of the Deity, and his dwelling was is 



1 

me ^ 



I 



Bltemntfilj tlie mist beautiful fomu i 
uf the mUECuliDe and feminine sei, sod 
mingled with llie powers of darkness, 
who L^kewitie became baja and Tirgim ; 
and from their conjunction proceeded 
the still commingtin; world. This ii 
probably an all^^ry, perhaps a paint- 
ing. Thei'Q is anolJier fanciful poetic 
.mage of coiisidei'nble beauty, and, pos- 
sibly, of Che Hsme hll^ric cbamcter. 
The pun dameDtoij spirits aatnvi up- 



wnrda in "their ships nf light," b 
which thef ornginally sailed tbrou^ 
the Etainlcse dement; those which 

down to earth ; these of a colder sud 



I 



^CU H 



OFFICE OF THE SPIRIT. 267 

the film/ He was the Mithra of the Persian sj'Stem ; 
and the Manichean doctrine was Zoroasti'ianism under 
Christian appellations.'' There is an evident difference 
between the Jesua and the Christoa throughout the 
sj'stem ; the Jesus Patibilia seema to be the imprisoned 
and suffering light. 

The Spirit, which made up the triple being of the 
primal principle of good, was. an all-pervading Eether, 
the source of life and being ; which, continually stimu- 
lating the disseminated jiarticles of light, was the ani- 
mating principle of the worlds. He was the creator of 
the intermediate world, the scene of strife, in which the 
powers of Ught and darkness contested the dominion 
over man ; the one assisting the triumph of the particle 
of light which formed the intellectual spirit, the other 
emhniting and darkening the imprisoned light with the 
corruption and sensual pollutions of matter. But the 
powers of darkness obtained the mastery, and man was 
rapidly degenerating into the baser destiny ; the Homo- 
phoms, the Atlas on whose shoulders the earth rests, 
began to tremble and totter under his increasing burden.' 

ApoBtoluE norit, Christum dicens ws 
Dei virtuMm et Del laplentiani, rir. 
tutem quidem ejui in sole habitare 
credimuE, npientiam lao in Inna: 
netnon et ^liritBa Ssncli, qui est ma- 
jestoi lerlia, aSris huuo oi 

a eedem ^tetour u direiwriu 




terrain quoque condpieittem, pgnere 
pntibilero Jcanm, qui est vita et aim 

' BomcpbDrua and his ally, the 
SpltinditedcDi 
taining the earth in its equilibTlun], ia 
ODE of the inoet incon^moaB and ie^bt 
pula of tha Msoich ean sj'atem 



26S 



THE CHEI3T — THE CELESTIAL BODIES. Book n 



Then the Christ descended from his dwelling in tlie san; 
aaKiinied a form apparently human ; the Jews, incited 
by the Prince of Darkness, crucified hia phantom form ; 
but He left beliind his Gospel, which dimly and imper- 
fectly taught what was now revealed in all its full efful- 
gern^e by Mani the Persian. 

The celestial bodies, which had been formed by i 
living spirit of the purer element, were the wit 
and co-operatore in the great strife,' To the sun, the 
dwelling of the Christ, were drawn up the purified soula, 
in which the principle of light had prevailed, and passed 
onward for ablution in the pure water, which forms the 
moon ; and then, after fifteen days, returned to the 
source of light in the sun. Tlie spirits of evil, on the 
creation of the visible world, lest they shoald fly away, 
and bear off into irrecoverable darkness the light which 
was still floating aboat, had been seized by the liyiag 
spirit, and bound to the stars. Hence the malignant 
influences of the constellations; hence all the terrifio 
and destructive fnry of the elements. While the soft 
and refreshing and fertilising showers are the distillation 



Is the origin of these imngss the 


the sun of the ffood fire, the moon ol 


nolioii of sapportere of the earth which 


the good water. •' In a word, not to 


.resocommoBintheKsit? Areanj 


be too minute, the Craitor formed tllB 


of A^ fable, older Aeu the inliodBc- 


sua anil moon ont of those parta of IM 






diiiD flbte HDder another fbm? oriB 


purity, TheYisiWeerinNjriMhealeiw 


it the Greak Atlas? 1 «ra ineliaed to 


(for now we do not (peak of the wi- 


look tfl India for the oiigiD. 


|»eme he«ven) and the rest of the 


BeauHbre'i obJKtion, tbnt >udi a 


plancU were fbimed of th»e parts of 




light wh^ch n^ bnt little comipMd 




With mailer. The rest be left In our 


matiw of ■ globe, is of no inconaiJer- 


world, which are no olher than thoM 


able wei^t, if it h. not mere poetiy. 


part> of light which hid ■uO'erad matt 


• LardDer bus well eiprwsed the 


by the contagion of matJ«r." Lard- 




ner'i. Worlu, 4to el, ii. 193, 


the cdwtial bodira, which w«™ inada. 





I 



rHAP. T. PUaOATOKlAL METEMPSYCHOSIS. 269 

of the celestial spirit, the thunders are the roarings, the 
liglitiiiog the flashing wrath, the humcaDe the furious 
breath, the torrent and destmctive rains the sweat, of 
the DEemon of darkness. This wrath is peculiarly 
excited l>y the extrication of the passive Jeaus, who was 
said to have been begotten upon the all-conceiving Earth, 
from his power, hy the pure Spirit. The passive Jesus 
is an emblem, in one sense, it would seem, or type of 
mankind ; more properly, in another, of the imprisoned 
deity or light. For gradually the souls of men were 
drawn upwards to the purifying sun ; they passed through 
the twelve signs of the zodiac to the moon, whose 
waxing and waning was the reception and transmission 
of light to the sun, and from the sun to the Fountain 
of Light, Those wliich were less pure passed again 
through different bodies, gradually became defsecated, 
during this long metempsychosis ; and there only re- 
mained a few obstinately and inveterately embrued in 
darkness, whom the final consummation of the visible 
world would leave in the irreclaimable society of the 
evil powers. At that eonsiunmation, the Homophoms 
would shake off his load ; the world would be dissolved 
in fire ; '' the powers of darkness cast back for all eternity 
to their primaeval slate ; the condemned souls would be 
kneaded up for ever iu impenetrable matter, while the 
purified souls, in martial hosts, would surround the 
frontier of the region of light, and for ever prohibit any 
new irruption from the antagonistic world of darkness. 

The worship of the Manicheans was simple : they 
built no altar, they raised no temple, they had no 
images, they had no imposing ceremonial. Pure and 
simple prayer was their only form of adoration ; " they 



WORSHIP OF THE MANICHEAM3. 



did not celebrate the birth of Ciirist, for of his birth 
they denied the reality; their Paschal feast, as they 
equally disbelieved the reality of Christ's passion, though 
kept holy, had little of the Christian form. Prayers 
addressed to the sun, or at least with their faces directed 
to that tabernacle in which Christ dwelt — hymns to thai 
great principle of light, exhortations to subdue tha 
dark and sensual element within, and the study of the 
marrellous Book of Mani — constituted their devotion. 
They observed the Lord's day ; they administered bap- 
tism, probably with oil ; for they seem (though this point 
is obscure) to have rejected water-baptism ; they cele- 
brated the Eucharist ; bat as they abstained altogether 
from wine, they probably used pure water or water 
mingled with raisins." Their manners were austere, and 
ascetic ; they tolerated, but hardly tolerated, marriage^ 
and that only among the inferior orders :' the theatre, 
the banquet, even the bath, were severely proscribed. 
Their diet was of fruits and herbs ; they shrank with 
abhorrence from animal food ; and, with Buddhist nicety, 
would tremble at the guilt of having extinguished the 
principle of life, the spark, as it were, of celestial li^t, 
in the meanest creature. This involved them in the 
strangest absurdities and contradictions, which are 
pressed against them by their antagonists with unrelenfe. 



1 

rthfl 

«y ^B 



I 



They bitterly taunled the Catholica 
with their Pagiiniim, their iBCrifi«n 
' sir agapiG, their idols, Iheir martpi, 
^r Gentile hoIidHp and ritH. lb, 
■■ August, contra Faust. Dispnt. i, 

■ St. Augustine accuses thrm of 
brenking the Fillh Conunaadineiit. 
~ ~ trinftdcRiotiiacftdidicieti 

inlmiix* depntare parealc* tuns, quod 



I 



V 


CKA7. 1. EEJECTION OF MANI. 271 ^M 


ing logic' They admitted penitence for sin, and laid H 


the fault of their delinquencies on the overpowering ^H 


influence of matter.* ^M 


Mani Buffered the fate of all who attempt to reconcile ^M 


conflicting parties without power to enforce harmony ^M 


between them. He waa disclaimed and rejected with ^M 




Chriitiana among the Catholic!. See 




qnotations in Lardner, iL 156. 


mmpedes impwuerint." Adv. Faust. 


' St. Augustine's TrealJse de Mor. 


lib. IT. p. 27B. "Opiuonlur ct pnc- 


Manichsnr. is full of theae ejtreor- 


dicant diaholum ttoiese nlque juniisse 


dinary chaises. lu the Confeasions 


maiculamttfeniinam," Idem, lib.iii. 


(iii. 10), be soys that tlie fig wept 


p. aai. "DiEplirefwBseite et mid- 


when it was plucked, und the pBreDt 


tiplioaminl,' ne Dei restri mnlU- 


tree pouted forth tears of tnillt ; " that 


j.licentureresalul«,"&B. Adir.SMun- 


particles of the true and Supreme God 


dum, c. 21. 


weie imprisoned in an apple, and could 


'ATtxtiriai yi^ur Kal i^poSiffiwy 


nut be set iree but by the toach of one 




of the elect. If eaten, therefore, by 


Sivaius imnitr^ rp flAjj Knri tV 


ont not i ISuikhfia, it wu a dodl; 


T>,i7iK>vsS,iii>,xlir. AleisDd. Lycop. 


sin ; and hence they are charged with 


c. 4. 


making it a sin to give any thing 


They aaerMd, indeed, that Iheir 


which haii life to a poor mau not a 


doctrinm went no farther in tJiis nupect 


Manichean They showed more 


Ihan those of the Catholic ChriBtiana. 




Fanslus, 30. c, i. Their oppoaition to 


than to human bemga." They ab- 




horred husbandry, it is said, u con- 


causes of the enmitj of the Persian 


tinually wounding life, even in cleatiiig 


king, " Rej rero Herearum, cum vi- 


a field of thorns; "^o much more were 


ili«t tarn Catholicos et Episcopos, 


they friead< of gourd) than of men." 


quam ManichcoB Manells seetarios, a 










fromSt.Angnstiae; at least he admita 


Christiaooe vera idem (dictum manavlL 


that, aa iar m hi> knowledge ai a 


Quum igilur Christiani ad regem con- 


hearer, be can charge them with no 


fligissent, Juseit iUe discrimcn quale 


immorality. Contr. Fortunal, in init. 


inlei' ut]osque eseet, aibi eipotii." 


1b other parts of his writings, esped ally 


■ Apnd Auemao. fiibllulh. Orient. 


in the tract De Morib. Manicbceor., he 


■ vii. S20. 


ia more unl'avourable. But see the 


^M There were, however, verv diflerent 


remarkable passage. Contra Fausl. t. i.. 


■ rule^ of diet -ud of mxcneri for the 


in which the Unnichi'au contrasts his 


H elect and the auditors, much re«m- 


worts with the faitA of the oiihului 


H bUng those of (he nwiika and other 


ChristiKu 



272 D£ATH OF MANL Book IU 

every mark of indigiiation and abhorrence by both. On 
his return from exile,^ indeed, he was received with 
respect and favour by the reigning sovereign, Hormouz, 
the son of Shahpoor, who bestowed upon him a castle 
named Arabion. In this point alone the Greek and 
Oriental accounts coincide. It was from his own castle 
that Mani attempted to propagate his doctrines among 
the Christians in the province of Babylonia. The fame 
of Marcellus, a noble Christian soldier, for his charitable 
acts in the redemption of hundreds of captives, desig- 
nated him as a convert who might be of invaluable 
service to the cause of Manicheism. According to the 
Christian account, Mani experienced a signal discom- 
fiture in his conference with Archelaus, bishop of Cas- 
car.* But his dispute with the Magian Hierarchy had a 
Death of i^ore fearful termination. It was an artifice of 
^**°^ the new king Baharam to tempt the dangerous 
teacher from his castle. He was seized, flayed alive, 
and his skin, stuffed with straw, placed over the gate of 
the city of Shahpoor. 

But wild as may appesir the doctrines of Mani, they 
expired not with tiieir author. The anniversary of his 
death was hallowed by his mourning disciples.'^ The 
sect was organized upon the Christian model : he left 



^ Aooording to Malcolm, he did not 
return till the reign of Baharam. 



hardlj hare distracted the East and 
West with his doctrines. It is not 



^ Some of the objections of Beanso- i improbablj an inu^nary dialogue in 
bre to this conference appear insn)>er- the form, though oertainlj not in the 



able. Allow a city named Cascar; 
can we credit the choice of Greek, even 
Heathen, Thetoriciana and grammarians 



style, of Plato. See the best edition 
of it, in Rooth*s Reliquise Sacrse. 
k Augnsttn. oontr. Epist Manicfaei. 



as assessors in such a city and in such J c. 9. The day of Hani's death was 



a contest ? Archelaus, it must indeed 
be confeswd, plays the sophist ; and if 
Mani had been no more powerful as a 
nsaioner, or as a speaker, he would 



kept holy by his followers, because he 
rsaliy died ; the crucifixion neglected, 
becaose Christ had but stemmgiy ex* 
pirsd on tho cross. 



r 



FKOPAGATIOK OP MANICHEISM. 



273 



. lji™«tiuli 



hia twelve apoatlea, Lis seventy-two bishops," hig prieat- 
hood. Hia distinction between the Elect" or the Per- 
fect, and the Hearers or Catechumens, offered an esact 
inu^e of the orthodox Christian communitieB ; and the 
latter were permitted to many, to eat animal food, and 
to cultivate the earth." In the East and in the 
West the doctrines spread with the utmost o 
rapidity ; and the deep impression which they 
made upon the mind of man may be eatimated by 
Manicheiam having become, almost throughout Asia and 
Europe, a by-word of religious animosity. In the 
Mohammedan world the tenets of the Sadducean, the 
impious Mani, are branded as the worst and most awful 
impiety. In the West the progress of the believers in 
this most dangerous of Hereaiarcbs was so succeaaful 
that the followers of Mani were condemned to the flames 
or to the mines, and the property of those who intro- 
duced the "execrable usages and foolish laws of the 
Peraiana " into the peaceful empire of Rome, confiscated 
to the imperial treasury. One of the edicts of Dio- 
cletian was aimed at their suppression.'' 8t. Augustine 



" AuguBtiD. de Hsres. c 46. 


quorum nihil feciunt qui vocuitut 




Electi. Auguilin. Epist. uuinii. 


TcgeUbla uud (or food were purified. 


r See the edict in Koutli, iv. p. 


that is, the divine prindple of Jife and 


B85. Some donbl has been thrown 




on its aulhenlititj. It is quenioneii 


inipure, bj p^ing throngh ILe bodies 


bj S. BfBDBgs and by Uninn-, thoT.gh 


ofthaKlKt "PrabeatalimailaelKtia 


admitted by Beausobte. I cannot 


mil, at dinna ilk aufaaUiitiB in earam 


think the ignorance which it betrays 


™tre poigsta, impeta^t e>. veni™. 


of the " true prindplea of the Mflni- 


quorum Iradilnr abUtione purgnnda.'' 


chBBs," the argument adduced by 


Augustin. de Hmns, c. 46. It wu > 


Lanlner. of the leiirt weight. Dio- 


merit in tlie beiireis la make thru 




ofleringi. Comfare Confe«. i>. 1. 


aiijuaiated with the " true principles 


* Auditorta, qui nppeliuitm' spnd 




COS, et oniibua vcKuutar, at ngrcw 




nriunUet « roloerlnt, uiore. balMot, 




VOL. II. 


T 



274 



PROPAGATIOX OF MANICHEISM. 



himfielf^ with difficulty escaped the trammels of tbeit 
creed, to become their moet able ant^oniBt; and xtt 
flTery century of Christiaiiity, Manicheiam, when its reai 
nature was as much unknown as the Copemican systeis, 
was a proverb of reproach against all sectaries who 
departed from the unity of the Church. 

The extent of its success may be calculated by the 
implacable hostihty of all other religions to the doc 
trines of Maai : the causes of that success are more 
difficult to conjectore. Maoicheism would rally under 
its banner the scAttersd followers of the Gnostic sects: 
but Gnosticism waa never, it would seem, popular ; 
while idanicheism seems to have had the power of ex- 
citing a fanatic attachtnent to its tenets in the lower 
orders. The severe asceticism of their manners may 
have produced some effect ; but in this respect they 
could not greatly have outdone mooogtic CliriBtianity; 
and the distinct and definite impersonations of their 
creed, always acceptable to a rude and imaginative 
class, were encountered by formidable rivals in the 
diemonology and the more complicated form of worship 
which was rapidly growing up among the Catholics.' 



1 Then ii BmHthiiig rer; benatiful 


cunqua psrM poatit intelllgi Dnub 




FrtBtremo illi in vob ssvitat, qui 


xt (be ame time aoUung can ehow 


DUnquBID tali more decepti .iBt, quitli 


more doirl; the etroog hold whidi 


vo. deoeplo. videnf Omtr, Efto. 




Kwiichai, t a. Bui tha spirit of 


tiUl W"rld. " rii ID TOS MTiuil, qui 




neniDiit cum qao libore m-am in- 




Tmiatur, el quam difficile cavfintur 


(met wliicii flppean to me to give Uu 


•iToras. Illi ID V09 Eteviant qai 


tkirest view of the real eooUoToa^, u 


oewtuqt qusin ranim A ardanm sit 


the BiBpuCatioointniFortunstuni, 


camaliii phADlamuta pic Tnentb surt- 




□itale inperare Illi ia voe 


deixin«l uoder ValentiulsD ud VaUos. 



The haUBCs in wluch thej held th«i 



TRnTMPH OF CHRISTIANITY. 



■ out 

I In the Eastern division of the Homan Empire, Chris- 
tianity had obtained a signal victory. It had Tunrnph nt 
subdued by patient endnrance the violent lios- '*f'"'°™'J- 
tiiity of GaleriiB ; it had equally defied the insidious 
policy of Maximia ; it hod twice engaged in a content 
with the civil government, and twice come forth in 
triumph. The edict of toleration had been extorted 
from the dying Galerius; and the Pagan Hierarchy, 
and more splendid Pagan ceremonial, with which Masi- 
min attempted to raise up a rival power, fell to the 
ground on his defeat by Licinius, which closely followed 
that of Maxentius by Coustantine. The Christian com- 
munities had publicly reassembled ; the churcheB were 
rising in statelier form in all the cities ; the bishops had 
reassumed their authority over their scattered but un- 
diminit^hed ilocks. Though, in the one case, indignant 
animosity and the deBire of vindicating the severity of 
their measures against a sect dangerous for its numbers 
as well as its principles, in the other the glowing zeal of 
the martyr may be suspected of some exaggeration, yet 
when a public imperial edict, and the declarations of 
the Christians themselves, assert the numerical pre- 
dominance of the Clu'istian party, it is im- Numbmiof 
possible to doubt that their numbers, as well iinn.^ 
as their activity, were imposing and formidable. In 
a rescript of Maximin, the Emperor states tliat it bad 
been forced on the observation of hia august fathers, 



» 



(Cwl. ThcodM. ivi. 31. Bj Thcodo- 
thnj were il«liirHl itiBmioue, 
and inoipiible of inheriliog by Uw, 
ivi. 17. The condrrauntion of th« 
MsniuhHina in Romf, bj Pope L« I., 
thtGrant (TliB Munk^lnuu in Sidlj^ 
U. EpiEt iv, d)| thdr revinl 



in die MicMlf Ages, nod Ibrar vxtenKvE 
disseminition, gt least w to their lead- 
ing principle ; Uie undjring otetinBey 
of thdr l«net« — la one of the dhk; 
curious diapters in Christinn hislor]'. 
S«c Ulln ChiJAianitf, i. ITl, iv. 
91, &0. 



PROPAGATION OF CHEISTIANITY Boos HI 

Diocletian cmd Maximian, that almost all mankind had 
abandoned the worship of their aneeatora, and united 
themaelves to the Christian sect ; ' and Lucianus, a pres- 
byter of Antiocb, who suffered martyrdom under Maxi- 
' " " t speech that the greater part of 
the world bad rendered its allegiance to Christianity'; 
entire cities, and even the rude inhabitant* of country 
diBtricts.' These statements refer more particularly to 

the East; and in the East various reasons 
Ss'TmS' "01^1'J ^^^ ^ the supposition that the Chria- 
gwiiwu* tians bore a larger proportion to the rest of 
ofian»mD. the population than in the other parts of the 

empire, except perhaps in Africa. The East 
was the native country of the new religion ; the sub- 
stratum of Judaism, on which it rested, was broader; 
and Judaism had extended its own conquests much 




liquiffi Sacrce, jii. S93. Gibbon bas 
sttemptfd to Ibmi a calculation of tlie 
relative numbers of the ChriitiBOi (nc 
ch. XV. yd. a. p. 393, with 1117 aote) ; 
he is, perhaps, uiclined to ondBrmte 
the pioportion which they bore to the 
Heathens. Yet, noCwithstauding the 
quolHtione abovp, and the high aatho- 
ritj of Ponon and of Routh, I " 
Teoture to doubt their being tha 
majoiily, eicept, pcssiblf, in ■ kw 
Eastern cities. In fact, in a popijb- 

pouU have been nearly 
M. Beugnot agnea Tery 

much with Gibbon; 

coucHire, with r^ard to the West, ja 

clearif right, though 1 shall allege 

presently tome : 

rapid progresa 0I 



5HiP. I. IS THE EAST, 277 

farther by proselytism, and had thus prepared the way 
for Christianity. In Egypt and in tlie Asiatic provinces 
all the early modifications of Christian opinions, the 
Gnostic sects of all descriptions, had arisen ; showing, as 
it were, by their fertility the exuberance of religious 
life and the congeniality of the soil to their prolific 
vegetation. The constitution of society was, in some 
respects, more favourable than in Italy to the develop- 
ment of the new religion. But it may be questioned 
whether the Western provinces did not at last offer the 
moat open field for its free and undisputed course. In 
the East, the civilisation was Greek, or, in the remoter 
regions, Asiatic. The Romans assumed the sovereignty, 
and the highest offices of the government were long held 
by men of Italian birth. Some of the richer patricians 
possessed extensive estates in the different provinces, 
but below this the native population retained its own 
habits and usages. Unless in the mercantile towns, 
which were crowded with foreign settlers irom all quar- 
ters, who brought their manners, their customs, and 
their deities, the whole society was Greek, Syrian, or 
Egyptian. Above all, there was a native religion ; and 
however this loose confederacy of religious republics, of 
independent colleges or fraternities of the local or the 
national priesthoods, might only be held together by 
the bond of common hostility to the new faith, yet 
everywhere this religion was ancient, estabh'shed, con- 
formed to the habits of the people, endeared by local 
vanity, atrengtliened by its connexion with municipal 
privileges, recognised by the homage and sanctioned 
by the worship of the civil authorities. The Roman 
prefect, or pro-consul, considered every form of Pagan- 
ism as sufficiently identified with that of Rome to 
demand his respect and support : everj'where he found 



278 



PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIANITY Book HL 



deities with tlie same namee or attributes as those of the 
imperiul city ; and everywhere, therefore, there was 
an alliaoce, seemingly close and intimate, between the 
local religion and the civil government. 

In the Western provinces, Gaul, Spain, and Britain, 
„ .„ but more particularly in Gaul, the constitution 

OfttacWcU. „ . '^ ■,.„ . _ 

01 society was very dinerent. it was Komaii, 
formed by the infitix of colonists from different quarters, 
and the gradual adoption of Boman manners by the 
natives. It bad grown up on the wane of Paganism. 
There was no old, or estabbahed, or national religion. 
The ancient Druidism had been proscribed as a dark 
and inhuman superstition, or had gradually worn away 
before the pn^ess of Roman civilisation. Out of Italy, 
the goda of Italy were, to a certain degree, strangers ; 
the Romans, as a nation, built do temples in their con> 
quered provinces : the muiiiflcGnoe of an individual, 
sometimes, perhaps, of the reigning Ctesar, after haring 
laid down the military road, built the aqueduct, or 
encircled the vast arena of the amphitlieatre, might rtuee 
a fane to his own tutelary divinity." Of the foreign 
settlors, each brought Ms worship; each set up hit 
gods ; vestiges of every kind of religion, Greek, Asiatic, 
Mithraic, have been discovered in Gaul, but none was 
dominant or exclusive. This state of society would 
require or welcome, or at all events offer less resistance 
to the propagation of a new faith. After it had once 
passed the Alps," Christianity made rapid progress ; 
and the father of Conatantine may have been guided nc 




hi. pBufgyiic on 


or Vi^nne; the other «u at Anton. 


on. ijfotfmplMof 


Eum™. Pm..^. Hd., with the note ot 


(he most beflatifal 


Cellarin.. 




' S*riQS toni alpa religJow Dti 


liuve b«n at Ljon. 


™«pta ? Sulpit Sera. H. E. UT>. it 



i 



fl*AP. I. IN THE TTEST. 279 

less by policy than bnmanity, in his reluctant and mer- 
cifal execution of the persecuting edicts of Diocletian 
and Gslerius. 

Such was the position of Christianity when Constan- 
tine commenced his struggle for universal empire. In 
the Eaat, though rejected by the ancient lival of Eome, 
the kingdom of Persia, it was acknowledged as the 
leligioB of the state by a neighbouring nation. In the 
Boman proTiuces, it was emerging victorious from a 
period of the darkest trial ; and though still threatened 
by the hostility of Masimin, that hostility was con- 
rtrained to wear an artful disguise, and, when it ventured 
to assume a more open form, was obliged to listen, at 
least with feigned respect, to the remonstrances of the 
Tictorions Constantine. In the North, at least in that 
part from which Constantine derived his main strength, 
it was respected and openly favoured by the Government. 
Another striking circumstance might influence the least 
■aperstitious mind, and is stated by tlie ecclesiastical 
historian uot to have been without effect on- Constantine 
himself. Of all the Emperors who bad been invested 
with the purple, either as Augusti or Cfesars, during the 
persecution of the Christians, his father alone, the pro- 
tector of Christianity, had gone down to an honoured 
and peaceful grave.^ Diocletiioi, indeed, still lived, 



r Eiueb. Tit. Coast. L 21 ; Socnt. £>i ovElv irarra dI irept Au>k\iiti- 

Keoles, Hist. i. 11. The language of BfJc. itpl Tuii iM.i,vuv Sioiit Sia- 

Uw EcdF^uUDd HirinrHD Socistes is iicl^imi, ^vpurtir rt in i oStiiii it<i- 

remarkable. GoDstantine, he fiava, waa rijpj KovOTdyriai, aironTpa^iii rii 

ttftlila^ng lie liberntion of Uiu em- 'E^Mvur Spijiiie.'ai, •llaifuJi'/ffTe- 

pre Tram i1« tyranta : ical &s ^r poy Thy $i&v tiiyaytr. It waa in 

tr Tii\iiiiirrji fipni-rlSt, trtriu tIvs this mood of mind that he saw tin 

ttir tTSnovpay Tpii riir ful^v viaioD af Uh emu, Socr. EccL Hia 

aoAfffcic, cstI nSr U t\d/iSartv, 1. S. 



PEESKCUTOKS OF CHKISTlAJflTT. 






but in what, no doubt, appeared to moat of his former 
FBdofise subjects, an inglorious retirement. However 
S^^l'i? the philosophy of the abdicated Emperor might 
""'■ teach him to show the vegetables of his garden, 

as worthy of as much interest to a mind of real dignity 
as the distinctions of worldly honour ; however he may 
have been solicited by a falling and desperate faction 
to resume the purple, his abdication was no doubt, in 
general, attributed to causes less dignified than the con- 
tempt of earthly grandeur. Conscious derangement of 
mind (a malady inseparably connected, according to the 
religious notions of Jew, Pagan, probably of Christian 
during that age, with the divine displeasure), or remorse 
of conscience, was reported to embitter the calm decline 
of Diocletian's life. Instead of an object of envy, no 
doubt, in the general sentiment of mankind, he was 
thought to merit only aversion or contempt.' Maj^inuan 
(Herculius), the colleague of Diocletian, after resuming 
the purple, engaging in base intrigues, or open warfare, 
against his son Maxentius, and afterwards against his 
protector Constantine, had anticipated the Beutenee of 
the executioner. Severua had been made prisoner, and 
forced to open his own veins. Galerius, the chief author 
of the persecution, had experienced the most miserable 
fate; he had wasted away with a slow and agonising 
and loathsome disease. Maximin alone remained, here- 
after to perish in mberable obscurity. Nor should it be 
forgotten that the great persecutor of the Christians 
had been the jealous tyrant of Constantiue's youth. 



ioui hon undying are | oDiy Pope who ever dial in b etata of 
s. I lenKmber Uut M. derungemiut (BoDitkce VIIJ.?). I 
CrdtioBBU Joly uimowhcra uwrta that donbt both bis hiitorica] tacO, bat tht 
,t XIV. (GuiEmalli) wu Oh | umUm is rarwkabk. 



CtaAP. I. BELIGION OF MAXENTIUS. 281 

Constantine had preserved his liberty, perhaps liia life, 
only by the boldness and rapidity of hie flight from the 
court of Galeriua.* 

Under all these eircumstances, Constantine was ad- 
vancing against Borne. The battle of Verona ^„^ 
had decided the fate of the empire : the vast ^J^""' 
forces of Maxentiua had melted away before """""'>■ 
the sovereign of Gaul ; but Rome, the capital, was still 
held with the obatioacy of despair by the voluptuous 
tyrant Masentius, Constantiiie appeared on the banks 
(rf the Tiber, thongh invested with the Homan purple, 
yet a foreign conqueror. Many of his troops 
were Barbarians, Kelts, Germans, Britons ; yet, 
in all probability, there were many of the Gaulish 
Christians in his aimy. Masentius threw himself upon 
the gods, as well as upon the people of Kome ; he 
attempted with desperate earneatnesa to rally the energy 
of Boman valour under the awfulnesa of the Roman 
religion. 

During the early part of bis reign, Masentius, intent 
upon his pleasures, had treated the religious Religion ^t 
divisions of Borne with careless indifference, *•"«!">» 
or had endeavoured to conciliate the Christian party by 
conniving at their security. His deification of Galeriua 
had been, as it were, an advance to the side of Paganism. 
The rebellion of Africa, which he revenged by the de- 
vastation of Carthage, was likely to bring him into 



I. 



■ la hia Mter to Sapor, King of riiutjAr t/Aoi KaratiKaMrt!; Srs 

PertiB, Constantine lihnHlf icknow- irSf T^ /»t' Ixciyavi it^fii^iui 

ledEes the influencB of thew molii-a yirm, rii imlmi- m/i-popi^ ivr' 

on )iis mind ; Si' iraXAol riy Tple (\>ou iro(mi!tl7/»aTi)!. trapiTuvt 

0giffiXeuffdyTwv, /uaiiiiStvi TAtLrats Toir rii Zixoia ^ij^ovat TlitirBa^ 

6wax»ivTts, iirtxtipv""' ipfiiaif Apud TheodoivU Ecc. Hbt. J. c. 25. 



S82 



BELIGION OF MAXENTIUS. 



hostUe contact with the Dumerous Christians of that 
province. In Home itaelf an event had occurred which, 
however darkly described, was connected with the an- 
tagonistic religious parties in the capital. A fire had 
broken out in the temple of the Fortune of Eome, The 
tutelary deity of the Roman greatness — an awful omen 
in this dark period of decline and dissolution! — was in 
danger. A soldier — it is difficult to ascribe such temerity 
to any but a Christian fanatic— nttered some words of 
insult against the revered, and it might be alienated, 
goddess. The indignant populace rushed upon the 
traitor to the majesty of Rome, and summoned the 
pnetorian c<Jiorts to wieak their vengeance on all who 
could be supposed to shoro in the sentiments of the 
apostate soldier. Afaxentius is accused by one Christian 
and one Pagan historian of having instigated the 
tamnlt; by one Pagan he ta said to have osed lua 
Dtmost exertions to allay its fiiry. Both statements 
may be true ; though at first he may have given fre« 
scope to the massacre, at a later period he may have 
taken alarm, and attempted to restore the peace c^ the 
city.'' Of the direct hostility d Maxentius to Christi- 
anity, the evidence is dubious and obscure. A Roman 
matron preferred the glory, or the crime, of suicide, 
rather than submit to bis lustful embraces. But it was 
the beauty, no doubt, not the religion of Sophronia, 



• Tbe sileDcc of Envbius ui to tlie 
Christianitj of the soldier, nuiy bt 
thaugfat u initiperabl* objectim te 
thii ritw. Bat in the Gnt pins, tin 
Euteni Udwp wu but impeiActly 
infbmud on the «&in of Rome, nod 
Bufbt hesitate, if awan of the Gb^ 
to implivmt* Ihs ChrialiaD natiie with 
that wbioh was so long one of tbi 



most aerioua and eSectiva dwrgM 
against the Ulh, its trHcfaeroui boa- 
tility to Uh greatiKsa of Rome. TV 
words of tbe Pagan Zoahnua am Wf 
atroof : — h^dafniiia fiiHtt* nHi 
Toii BtUw rrpaTurTAr tu i^t. nt 

tbtiStiar imKBirto! iwt-ftMf. 
Zos, Hut. U. 13. 



Cb^. I. Hia PAGANISM. 283 

which excited the passiona of Maxentius, whose iicen- 
tiousness comprehended almost all the noble fatniliea of 
Bome in ita insulting range." The Papal history, not 
improbably resting on more ancient authority, repregents 
Jtaxentius aa degrading the Pope Marcellus to the 
humble function of a groom. The predecessor of the 
Gregoriea and Innocents swept the Imperial stable.*' 

The darkening and more earnest Paganism of Maxen- 
tius is more clearly disclosed by the circiim- HuPnean- 
Btances of bis later history. He had ever ""^ 
listened with trembling deference to the expounders of 
signs and omens. He had suspended his expedition 
against Carthage, because the signs were not propitious,' 
Before the battle of Verona, he commanded the 8ybil- 
line boobs to be consulted. •' The enemy of the Romans 
wil] perish," answered the prudent and ambiguous oracle ; 
but who could be the enewiy of Home but the foreign 
Constantine, descending from his imperial residence at 
Treves, with troops levied in the barbarous provinces, 
and of whom the gods of Home, though not yet de- 
claredly hostile to their cause, might entertain a jealous 
suspicion ? 

On the advance of Constantine, Maxentius redoubled 
his religious activity. He paid hia adoration at the 
altars of all the gods ; he consulted aU the diviners of 
future events.' He had shut himself in his palace ; the 
adverse signs made him take refuge in a private house.* 
Darker rumours were propagated in the East: he is 
reported to have attempted to read the secrets of futurity 



* Eonb.'Tit. Conit. i, 33, 3i. I ' Buieb. Vit. Const. L 21 ; ipniki 

^ Anubuiuii, Vit. Mucell. ; PU- of hia KnniT^i'avF nol ytiiriHii' 
la. Vil. Ponlificum in MjTwUo. (ury/anloi. 

" Zoemui, a. 11. I ■ Znioias, ii. U. 



284 EELIGIOH OF CONSTANTINE. Booi. £11 

in the entrails of pregnant women ; •> to have sought an 
alliance with the infernal deities, and endeavoured by 
magical formulariea to avert the impending danger. 
However the more enhghtened Pagans might disclaim 
the weak, licentious, and sanguinary Maxentius, as the 
representative either of the Boman majesty or the 
Roman religion, in the popular mind, probably, an inti- 
niat« connexion unit«d the cause of the Italian sovereign 
with the fortunes and the gods of Home. It is possible 
that Constantine might attempt to array against this 
imposing barrier of ancient superstition the power of 
the new and triumphant faith : he might appeal, as it 
were, to the God of the Christiana against ^e gods of 
the capital. His small, though \-ictorious, army might 
derive courage in their attack on the fate-hallowed city, 
from whose neighbourhood Galerius had so recently 
returned in discomfiture, from a vague notion that they 
were imder the protection of a tutelar deity, of whose 
nature they were hut imperfectly informed, and whose 
worshippers constituted no insignificant part of their 
barbarian army. 

Up to this period all that we know of Constantine's 
Rcu^j-flcf religion would imply that he was outwardly, 
0>msunud«. ^jj^j gyg^ zealously, P^an. In a public ora- 
tion his panegyrist extols the roagnificenc'e of his offer- 
ings to the gods. His victorious presence was not merely 
expected to restore more than their former splendour to 
the Gaulish cities, ruined by barbaric incuraions, but 
sumptuous temples were to arise at his bidding, to pro- 
pitiate the deities, particularly Apollo, his tutelary God.' 

toaur. ad H tempU fldaitar, prad- 
pueqae ApoJla nost«, c 
tibus Hqiiii peijurin puninntur, quo 
ta niirinip iqiortel tuiiBM. 




VISION Of CONSTANTIKE. 



285 



The medals struck for these victories are covered with 
the symbolB of Paganism. Euaebius himself admits that 
Conatantine was at this time in doubt which religion he 
should embrace, and, after his vision, required to be 
instructed in the doctrines of Chriatianity.^ 

The scene in which the memorable vision of Constan- 
tine ia laid varies widely in the different accounts. 
Several places in Gaul lay claim to the honour of this 
momentous event in Chriatian history. If we assume 
the most probable period for such an occmrence, what- 
ever explanation we adopt of the vision itaelf, it would 
be at this awful crisis in the destiny of Constantine and 
of the world, before the walls of Kome ; an instant when, 
if we could persuade ourselves that the Almighty Euler, 
Ml gMcA a manner, interposed to proclaim the fall of 
Paganism and the establishment of Christianity, it would 
hare been a public and & solenm occasion, wortby of the 
Divine interference. Nowhere, on the other hand, was 
the high-wrought imagination of Constantine so likely 
to be seized with religions awe, and to transform some 
extraordinary appearance in the heavens into the sign 
of the prevailing Deity of Christ ; nowhere, lastly, would 
poUcy more imperiously require some strong religious 
impulse to counterbalance the hostUe terrors of Paganism, 
embattled against him. 

EasebiuB,™ the Bishop of Ceeaarea, asserts that Con- 
stantine himself made, and confirmed by an oath, the 
extraordinary statement, which was received with im- 



Jovi JoDOniqui 
nibmisit, quim arcs tna, 
Testigia urbaa M UmpU 
Eumrnii Vtntgjt. dxL 

' 'ErKHi JJTS iwdiov tiai Bil 
faiTpa+iireo. Bi^iir. ICuKb, V 






2SS VISION OF CONSTANTISE. Book IlL 

pUcit veneration during many agea of Christianity, but 
vuion of which tlie severer judgement of modem histo- 
**™""" rical inquiry has called in question, has investi- 
gated with the most searching accuracy, and almost 
universally destroyed its authority with rational men ; yet, 
it must be admittpd, found no satisfactory explanation of 
its origin." While Constantine was meditating in grave 



■ Tin bIIcdm, not only of sll con- 
t«npanry hiatorj {the kgei»l of Arto- 
mios, skeiHionod eveo by Tillnoont, 
iloa not deserre the nariB), but of 
Euicbiiu hiiDKlf, in hii Ecclenutiod 
Bbtorjr, giTM a most dongerou* iid- 
Tantikge to (hofie wbo ii]Log«ther reject 
the itory. But on whom u tha Id- 
TNitioii of Ois story to be fulhintl ? 
On Eus*LiH? who, •llhough bii con- 
•deiB!* might not le delicolelj soru- 
pulom on the wibjcd of pious fnLi<!, 
ta chiu^ with nD raon Ihan the 
■DppreHion of trath, not villi tlie 
direct iorentlon of &]achood. Or, on 
Conatantine himself? Could it be 



Kith h 
Chriitij 



* dfliUiata a 



oilj? Or«i 



of Uw 



a hit a 



in hii liter Aajn* deceived by n 
iDEiplicahte illtuiiuii? 

Tba ant ucunus of HeiDichm, 
hk sditiuu of Eutcbius, contaiDs i 
fiilbsE, uid, 00 the whole, th« m 
tempeialt ud Judicioiig discussion 



»olu«:t,H 






iag, yrt «o faieiplicable, to Ibe hiito- 
rial inqiiier. Then are (hrae Itad- 
ii^ IhHui in, mriousl]' modilied by 
Uwir dlAei-ent partlHU*: 1. A real 
mincle. 2. A natural phcnonMUWi, 
e imngioiitica of tha 



prewnlal t 
EmpBior. 



on the part of the Emperor, or of 
Eunblua. The 6nb hu few partiBia 
in the present day. "Ut euim mlr>- 

gentili aTocatnm esse, nemo fecile 
hue Ktale silhoc credeU" Ueinichoi, 
p. 0-22. Indepenileot of alt other 
obJectioDB, the tnonil difficulty in the 
leit is to tne nndusiTe. The thin) 
hai it* paitisans, but uppean to tag 
10 be abeolulely incraiible. But the 
general consent of the morv learned 
and dispauionate writers aeenu In 
taTuur of the Hcond, which waa fln^ 
1 hcUe^-e, Bu^Hled by F, Albert 
Fnbrioius. In this roucar Schroftdc. 
the Geimsn Chun* hiilorian. M«uidcr. 
M^itiso, Heinichen, and, in ahort, all 
modem writei'a who have any daliR 
to hiitorical ctiticism. 

The g!Hit difficulty whii* nieum- 
htn 'Jm theory which rHolTM it lata 
wliir hnlo or some natural pfaant^ 
lenon is the legend i, nSrif wUtf, 
'hich no optical illudcu can well (ex- 
plain, if it b« taken lil««Ily. The 
only rational theory ii to «uppnee 
thnt this Ka.'' the inference drawn by 
the miBd of Constanline, and (mbodic^ 
in these woida; which, from beisg 
inicribed oa the Lnbni-um, or on tlw 
arms or any other publia monument, 
as eommemonilire of the sTsnt, gm- 
duolly grew into an integral put J 



Ch\p. I. VISION OF CONSTANTINE. 287 

earneatneas the claims of the rival religioioa, — on ona 
hand the awfcl fate of those wlio had persecuted Chris- 
tiaiiity, oil the other, the necessity of some divine assists 
ance to counteract the magical incantations of his enemy, 
—he addressed his prayers to the One great Supreme. 
On a sudden, a short time after noon, appeared a bright 
cross in the heavens, just above the sun, with this in- 
Bcription, " By this, conquer." Awe seized himself and 
the whole army, who were witnesses of the wonderful 
phsenomenon. But of the signification of the vision 
Conatantine was altogether ignorant. Sleep fell upon 
Us harassed mind, and during his sleep Christ himself 
appeared, and enjoined him to make a banner in the 
shape of that celestial sign, under which his arms woidd 
be for ever crowued with victory. 

Constantine immediately commanded the famous La- 
bflrum to be made, — the Labanim which for a long time 
was borne at the head of the Imperial armies, and vene- 
tated as a aacred relic at Constantinople. The shaft of 
this celebrated standard was cased with gold ; above the 
transverse beam, which formed the cross, was wrought 
in a golden crown the monogi'am, or rather the device 
of two letters, which signified the name of Christ. And 
80 for the first time the meek and peaceful Jesua became 
a God of battle, and the cross, the holy sign of Christian 
redemption, a banner of bloody strife. 



The iBtsr KnJ ' 
the whole imy v 



PnjdcDL In Symmi 

Euseb. Vit, Const, i. 21 

S. Zd«i9iis, ii. 13. M 

CiHiitiintiiu, f. 41, Mqq. 



MILITAET CHRISTIiKITY. 



BooKin 



TliiB irreooncileable incougniity betwoen the aymbo! 
of universal peace and the horrors of war, in my judge- 
ment, is conclusive against the miraculous or super- 
natural character of the transaction," Yet the admission 
of Christianity, not merely as a controlling power, and 
the most effective auxiliary of civil government (an 
office not unbecoming its divine origin), but as the ani- 
mating principle of barbarous warfare, argues at once 
the commanding influence which it had obtained over 
the human mind, as well as its degeneracy from its pure 
and spiritual origin. The unimpeached and nnques- 
tioned authority of this miracle during so many centuries, 
shows how completely, in the association which took 
place between Barbarism aud Christianity, the former 
maintained its predominance. This was the first advance 
to the military Christianity of the Middle Ages, a modi- 
fieation of the pure religion of the Gospel, if directlv 
opposed to its genuine priuciples, still apparently indis- 
■ pensable to the social progress of men ; through which 
the Homan Empire and the barbarous nations, which 
were blended together in the vast European and 
Christian system, must necessarily have passed, before 
they could arrive at a higher civilisation and a purer 
Christianity. 



• 1 wai agx«abty BUrprised bi Sad 
that Umbeim concniml in these t 
meats, for whidi f will readily to- 
coantfT the Eharge of Quakertdm. 

" Hsixine oiatia serraturi geDeria 



redocet. 






)U auctflr maHalibui est, 
a iguoicere Tult. , . . 
as Teteram Chriitianori 



narmtloDlbiis da ctatii inie miisoulii 
a'^'ius delvideDdla In ipum mnjeslatem 



Of!, et caoctiBBitoi 
Don hostes, aed noo ii.soidelKl]>in 
iujurii amus." De Reb.anteCi 
Whea the Empresa Helena, araoDg the 
other treaaures of the tomb of Christ, 
found the naila which laateoed him tc 
the cross, ConaUotJne turned tbem 
Into a helmet sad bita for hia war- 
horse. Socrates, i. 17. True or 
febalcnui, the story is chflracteristi: 
of the CirMiaa seDlimenl then pre- 



CBiT. r. COHDUCT OF CONSIAKTINE. 289 

. The fate of Rome and of Paganism was decided iii 
the battle of the Milvian Bridge ; the eventual result 
was the establishment of the Christian empire. But to 
CoDstautine himself, if at this time Christianity had 
obtained any hold upon his mind, it was now the 
Christianity of the warrior, aa subsequently it was that 
of the statesman. It was the military commander who 
availed himBelf of the assistance of any tutelar divinity 
who might insure success to bis daring enterprise. 

Christianity, in its higher sense, appeared neither in 
the acts nor in the decrees of the victorious 
Constantine after the defeat of Maxentius. ccaauuiuw 
Though his general conduct was tempered lurfvtr 
with a wise clemency, yet the execution of his 
enemies and the barbarous death of the infant son of 
JUaxeutius, still showed the same relentless disposition 
which had exposed the barbarian chieftains, whom he 
bad takeu in his successful campaign beyond the Kliine, 
in the arena at Treves." The Emperor still maintained 
the same proud superiority over tLe conflicting religions 
of the empire, which afterwards appeared at the founda- 
tion of tlie new metropolis. Even in the Labarum, if tbe 
initiated eyes of the Christian soldiery could discern the 
sacred symbol of Christ indistinctly glittering above the 
cross, there appeared, either embossed on the beam 
below, or embroidered on the square purple banner 
which depended from it, the bust of the Emperor and 
^ those of his family, to whom the heathen part of his 
army might pay their homage of veneration. Constan- 
tine, though he does not appe-ar to have ascended to 

' Odc oT these barbaniua anU wai I perlidj)i crat npbt militin n«c fcroda 
fdccted b7 th« jKoegjriial orator u seyaHali, ad jxaua gpn.'tjiculD dali, 
■topic of the higbot praise. "Paberu, ssrieiites bestins maltitudlue iu& tiiti- 
qui in nuDiu veuarunt et quomm nee j garusU" l^umeoii Pnnegr, c, >u. 
VOL. 71. U 



EDICT FROa MILAH. 



«lfl^* 



the Capitol, to pay his homage and to offer Bacrifice* to 
Jnpiter the best and greatest, and the other tutelary 
deities of Rome (in general the first act of a Tictorions 
emperor), yet did not decline to attend the sacred games,' 
Among the acts of the conqueror in Rome, was the re- 
storation of the Pagan templea; among his impenal 
titles he did not decline that of the Pontifex Maximum' 
The province of Africa, in return for the bloody head of 
their oppressor Maxentius, was permitted to found a 
college of prieste in honour of the Flavian family. 
The first public edict of Constantine in favour of 
Christianity is lost ; that issued at Milan in the 
csiuuniine joint names of Constantino and Licinius, is 
"^ ' the great charter of the liberties of Cliristiauity.' 
But it is an edict of full and unlimited toleration, and 
no more. It recognises Christianity as one of the legal 
forms by which the Divinity may be worahipped," It 



1 Eu«b. Vit. Cooit, i. 51. Le 


WIS that a)uiv«3l I«nii for the Sa- 


Bmu, Htatoin da Bu Empirs, 1. ii. 


preme Deity, adtnitted by the Pngan 




aa well OS the Chriitian. What Zosi- 


' Nm quiJquam aliud homiiiM, 


mu. called t1 9.^^] etiam alib «li- 






doruai, qiiam le ipsum spectare potu- 


iimilitar apattmn, et liberam, pro 


aruut. Inccrt. Hantg. «. lii. 


quiet* lenicorii noiti'i raw oonL'essani, 


■ ZoHmns, W. 36. 


ut ia colendu quod qui*que delsgeiit. 


> The alict, or rather Uie copy, 


babeat liberwn litcultalem, quia (no- 


wt br Licinius to the Pref«t of 


lummi detrahi] honori ncquc cuiquain 


SithfniB in LactantiuB, De Mart. Fen. 




m >iviii. 


I win transcribe, ho«CTe.', the oU 


■ - D«r«iofMi!ai.,*.D.313. "Hko 


nervationa of Ketlner oa this point : 


H n Chriatiimia et omaibas liberam po- 


"Mulli merito olaervftniiit, aiiimuDi 


illud orteoden (bc. decretmo Uedio- 




lenK) ab sntiqua religione mininn 


■ 4U»que fgki«*t, qnod quid™ rff- 




■ finittti in tedc oeleiti iioblE stque 


hoc deaetum valere. ut veram Coa- 


W amaibui qui tub pntntati! DDstra snot 




W wiutitiiti, pl«aa K propiiia po«it 


Mon solus quippr illiu. Rintor fuit. 


k -"'"•— 


«d Licinius qnoqac— Huic a.iMm— 



«nAP. 1. EARLIER lAWS OF CONSTANTINE. 201 

'performa an act of justice in restoring all the public 
buildings and the property which had been confiscated 
iby the persecuting edicts of former emperors. Where 
,tho churches or their sites remained in the possession of 
tiie imperial treasury, they were restored without any 
compensation; where they had been alienated, the 
■grants were resumed ; where they had been purchased, 
the possessors were offered an indemnity for their en- 
forced and immediate surrender, from the state. The 
prefects were to see the restitution carried into execu 
tion without delay and without chicanery. But the 
same absolute freedom of worship was secured to all 
other religions ; and this- proud and equitable indiffer- 
ence is to secure the favour of the divinity to the reign- 
ing emperors. The whole tc«ie of this edict ia that of 
imperial clemency, which condescends to take under its 
protection an oppressed and injured class of subjects, 
rather than that of an awe-struck proselyte, esteeming 
Christianity the one true rehgion, and already deter- 
mined to enthrone it aa the dominant and establishetl 
iaith of the empire. 

The earlier laws of CJonstantine, though in their effects 
■&YourabIe to Christianity, claimed some de- Etrinriaws 
fcrence, as it were, to the ancient religion in v>"- 
the ambiguity of their language, and the cautious terms 
in which they interfered with the liberty of Paganism, 
-The rescript oommandiu^ tlie celebration of tlie Chris- 



'ua i» (Chrl>tkDl>) DOn BiDcerui oat 






retilaremontemDoDpotuiaset. Kestner, 


a«iiie csUrit diitpJicen Tuluit nib- 


IKsp. de commul. quam, ConrtanC M. 


dilb, qui Hnliqumn nliguinnn pro- 


auit. udelu Eublit Chiistinna. Com- 


Httrnitur. Qnunvia igitiu' etiun [«- 


p«e Hduichen, Eicar.. in Vit. Cqii=I. 


l%wni> indole pIcDiug j<in> rDioet 


p. 513. 



293 8ANCT1TT OF THE 3DSDAT. Book UL 

tian Sabbath, bears noalliwiou to ita peculiar sanctity as 
a Christian institution. It ia the day of the Sun, whicu 
is to be observed by the general veneration ; the courts 
were to be closed, and the uoise and tumult of public 
business and legal litigation were no longer to violate 
the repose of the sacred day. But the believer in the 
new Paganism, of which the solar worship was the cha- 
racteristic, might acquiesce without scruple in the saoo 
R.nMiij of t'ty of the first day of the week. The genius 
ihe sumiv of Christianity appears more manifestly in the 
single civil act, which was exemptetl from the general 
restriction on public business. The courts were to be 
open for the manumission of slaves on the hallowed 
day." lu the first aggression on the freedom of Pagan- 
ism, though the earliest law speaks in a severe and 
vindictive tone, a second tempers the stern language of 
the foroier statute, and actually authorises the sapersti* 
tion against which it is directed, as far as it might be 
supposed beneficial to mankind. The itinerant sooth- 
sayers and diviners, who exercised their arts in private 
houses, formed no recognised part of the old religion. 
Ajninn M- Their rites were supposed to be connected with 
viiuttion. ^y kinds of cruel and licentious practices — with 
mi^c and unlawful sacrifices. They performed tlieir 
ceremoaies at midnight among tombs, where tliey 
evoked the dead ; or in dark chambers, where tliev 
made libations of the blood of the living. They were 
darkly rumoured not to abstain, on occasions, from hu- 
man blood, to offer children on the altar, and to read 
the secrets of iiiturity in the palpitating entrails of 
human victims. These unholy practices were proscribed 
by the old Roman law and tba old Eoman religion. 



■ Oh, 



AGAINST LIVINATION. 



29a 



Thia kind of magic was a capital offence by the laws of 
the Twelve Tables. Secret divinations had beea inter- 
dicted by former emperors, — by Tiberiua and by Dio- 
cletian.'' The suppreasioQ of these rites by Constantine 
might appear no more than a strong regulation of police 
for the preservation of the public morals." The sooth- 
sayer who should presume to enter a private house to 
jnractise his unlawful art, was to be burned alive ; those 
who received him were condemned to the forfeiture of 
their property and to exile. But in the pubbc temple, 
according to the established rites, the priests and seers 
might still unfold the secrets of futurity; the people 
were recommended to apply to them rather than to the 
ttiauthorised diviners, and this permission was more 
ixplicitly guaranteed by a subsequent rescript' Those 
Arts which professed to avert the thunder from the 
■house, the hurrieane and the desolating shower from 
the fruitful field, were expressly sanctioned as beneficial 
to the husbandman. Even in case of the royal palace 
leing struck by lightning, the ancient ceremony of 
' propitiating the Deity was to be practised, and the 
liaruBpiceB were to declare the meaning of the awiul 
portent.** 

Tet some acta of Constantine, even at thia early 
period, might encourage the expanding hopes coneuntiDe'* 
ot the Christiana that they were destined ^,^£^05. 
before long to receive more than impartial "^'J'- 
justice from the Emperor. His acta of liberality were 



1 



DO." Compare Beugnot, 



s alquc ddubi u. 



iM CEORCHES IN ROME. BuMW 

beyond those of a sovereign disposed to redress the 
wrongs of an oppressed class of his subjects ; he not 
merely enforced by his edict the restoration of their 
churches and estates, be enabled them, by his own 
munificence — his gift of a latge suni of money to the 
Christians of Africa — to rebuild their ruined edifices, 
and restore their sacred rites with decent solemnity.' 
oionSMin Many of the churches in Rome claim the firat 
KoM. Christian Emperor for their founder. The 

most distinguished of these, and, at the same time, those 
which ore best supported in their pretensions to anti- 
quity, stood on the site* now occupied by the Latersn 
and by St. Peter's. If it could be ascertained at what 
period in the life of Constantine these churches were 
built, some light might be tlirowu on the history of hia 
personal religion. For, the Lateran being an imperial 
palace, the grant of a basihca within its walls for the 
Christian worship (for such we may conjecture to have 
been the first church), was a kind of direct recognition, 
if not of his own regular personal attendance, at least of 
his admission of Cbristiauity within bis domestic circle.'' 
The palace was afterwards granted to the Cliristians, 
the first patrimony of the Popes. The Vatican suburb 
seems to have been the favourite place for the settle- 
ment of foreign religions. It was thickly i>eopled with 
Jews from an early period;' and remarkable vestiges of 
the worship of Cybele, which appear to have fiourislied 
side by side, as it were, with that of Christianity, re- 
mained to the fourth, or the fifth, century .' The site of 

• Sae the Di-igioa! gnat of ROOD I Snt synod h*ld to decide an th« Do- 
<3ilM U CiKilian. bishop of Cuthoes, latia Echism. OpMt. i. 23. Fiutta 
III ICuNbius, Ecd. Hat. I. <i. nuT hive been a ChrutUn. 

' Th» Uleninwill Iht r«id*n(* tf ■ BMnnge, Tii, 310, HiaU nf Jcttb. 
Uw I'riniwi Piuitn; it ia oUled tho ' ' BoDien and Platuer, Koou' Be 
IS Famte in tb* account of tha icbnlbaDg, i, p. 33. 




r 



3TNOD3 OF CHRISTIAN BISHOPS. 295 

St. Peter's Chureh was believed to oociipy tho spot hal- 
lowetl by his martyrdom ; and the Christians must liave 
felt no unworthy pride in employing the materials of 
Nero's Circus, the aeene of the sanguinary pleasures 
of the first persecutor, on a church dedicated to the 
memory of his now honoured, if not absolutely wor- 
shipped, victim. 

"With the protection, the Eraperor assumed the con- 
trol over the affairs of the Christian communities ; to 
the cares of the public administration was added a 
recognised supremacy over the Christian Church. The 
extent to which Christianity now prevailed is shown 
by the importance at once assumed by the Christian 
bishops, who brought not only their losses and their 
snfferings during the persecution of Diocletian, but, 
unhappily, likewise their quarrels, before the imperial 
tribunal. From his palace at Treves, Constantine had 
not only to assemble military councils to debate on t!ie 
necessary measures for the protection of the German 
frontier and the mainteuance of the imperial armies, 
and councils of finance to remodel and enforce the taxa- 
tion of tlie different provinces, but likewise synods of 
Christian bishops to decide on the contests which had 
grown up in the remote and unruly province of Africa. 
The Emperor himself is said frequently to have appeared 
without his imperial state, and, with neither guards nor 
oCBcers around liim, to have mingled in the debate, and 
expressed his satisfaction at their unanimity, whenever 
that rare virtue adorned their counsels.^ 

For Constantine, though he could give protection. 



I Eunb. Vit. Const. I. xliv. x"" [ c«u1ucIh( hiiDielf u 
fovTtLitiKyiis tavrivrf KOir^ Triyrwv biihoju, 
iltovotf. Eusebius niva too Ihiit be \ 



296 POPULAR PASSIOSS. 

could not give peace to Christianity, It is the nature of 
man, that whatever powerfully moves, agitates to expess 
the public mind. With new views of those subjects 
which make a deep and lasting impression, new passions. 
awaken. The profound stagnation of the human mind 
during the government of the earlier Cassars had been 
stirred in its inmost depths by the silent underworking 
of the new faith. Momentous questions, which, up to 
that time, had been entirely left to a small intellectual 
aristocracy, had been calmly debated in the villa of the 
Roman senator or the grove sacred to philosophy, or 
discussed by sophists whose frigid dialectics wearied 
without exciting the mind, had been gradually bronght 
down to the common apprehension. The nature of the 
Deity ; the state of the soul after death ; the equality of 
mankind in the sight of the Deity — even questions 
■vhich are beyond the verge of human intellect; the 
origin of evil ; the connexion of the physical and moral 
world — had become general topics ; they were, for the 
first time, the primary truths of a popular religion, and 
naturally could not withdraw themselves from the alli- 
ance with popular passions. These passions, as Chri* 
tianity increased in power and influence, came into 
more active operation ; as they seized on persons of 
different temperament, instead of being themselves sub- 
dued to Christian gentleness, they inflamed Christianity, 
as it appeared to the world, into a new and more indo- 
mitable principle of strife and animosity. Mankind, 
even within the sphere of Christianity, retrograded to 
the sterner Jewish character : and in its spirit, as well 
as in its language, the Old Testament began to dominate J 
over the Gospel of Christ. 

The first civil wars which divided Christianity wei 
tJiose of Donatism and the Trinitarian controverayj 




r Cf 



DISSENSIONS OF CHRISTIAN IT Y. 



The Gnostic secta, in tlieir different varieties, and the 
Manicliean, were rather rival religions than iummimm 
Ckristian factiona. Though the adherents of ny. 
these sects professed to be disciples of Ciiriatianity, yet 
they had their own separate constitntions, their own 
priesthood, their own ceremonial. Donatism 
was a fierce and implacable schism in an esta- 
bh'shed community. It was embraced with all the wild 
ardour, and maintained with the blind obstinacy, of the 
African temperament. It originated in a disputed ap- 
pointment to the episcopal dignity at Carthage. The 
Bishop of Carthage, if in name inferior (for everything 
connected witit the ancient c&pital still maintained its 
snperior dignity in the general estimation), stood higher, 
probably, in proportion to the extent of his influence and 
the relative numbers of his adherents, as compared with 
the Pagan population, than any Christian dignitary in 
the West. The African Churrhea had suffered more 
than usual oppression during the persecution of Dio- 
cletian, not improbably during the invasion of Maxen- 
tius. External force, which in other quarters compressed 
ttie body into closer and more compact unity, in Africa 
left behind it a fatal principle of disorganisation. These 
rival claims to the see of Carthage brought the opponent 
|iarties into inevitable collision. 

The pontifical offices of Paganism, ministering in a 
ceremonial to which tlie people were either indifferent 
or bound only by liabitual attachment, calmly descended 
in their hereditary course, were nominated by the muni- 
cipal magistracy, or attached to the higher civil 
offices. They awoke no ambition, they caused hifnTciiy 
no contention ; they did not interest society p»B"n priiai- 
enough to disturb it. But the growth of the 
■acerdotal power was a n-:oessary consequence of the 



CHEISTIAS nlERARCnV. 



1 



development of Cbristiaiuty. The hierarcLy assei 
(ttiey were believed to possess) the power of sealing 
eternal destiny of man. From a post of danger, which 
modest piety was compelled to assume by the unsought 
and unsolicited sufi'ragea of the whole community, a 
bishopric had become an office of dignity, influence, and, 
at times, of wealth. The prelate ruled not now so much 
by his admitted superiority in Cliristiaii firtue, as by 
the inahenable authority of hia office. He opened oi 
closed the door of the church, which was tantamount to 
an admission or an esclusion from everlasting bliss; he 
littered the sentence of excommunication, which 
back tlie trembling delinquent among the lost 
perishing Heathen. He had his throne in the mosi 
tinguished part of the Christian temple ; and though yet 
acting in the presence and in the name of his college of 
presbyters, yet he was the acknowledged head of a large 
community, over whose eternal destiny he held a \i 
but not therefore less imposing and awful, dominit 
Among the African Christians, perhaps by the 
manding character of Cyprian, in his writings at lej 
the episcopal power is elevated to its utmost 
No wonder that, with the elements of strife fennen! 
in the society, and hostile parties already arrayed 
each other, the contest for this commanding post 
often bo commenced with blind violence, and carried 
with iireconcileable hostility." 

In eveiy community, no doubt, had grown u] 
severer party, who were anxious to contract the pah 
salvation to the narrowest compass ; and a more libi 

' TTm principal toatet of infortnii- I salijoined to them ; and (m their li 
tion concerning the flonstist coBtio- I historj, inrious pess 
rersy is liw woiki of Optatiw, with | of St. Augnstine. 
the rsloible cDllectJoQ of doctiiDaiU | 



1 



THE TRADIT0H8. 



H Chap. 

H class, wlio were more lenient to the infinnitiea of their 
■ brethren, and would extend to the utmost limits the 
H beneficial efTects of the Kedemption. The fiery ordeal of 
H the persecution tried the Christians of Africa by the 
W most searching test, and drew more strongly the line of 
demarcation. Among the summary proceedings of the 
persecution, which were carried into eflfect with unre- 
lenting severity by Anulinua, the Prefect of Africa (the 
same who, by a singular vicissitude in political affairs, 
became the instrument of Constantine's munificent 
grants to the churches of his province),' none was more 
painful to the feelings of the Christians tlian the demand 
of the unconditional surrender of the furniture of their 
sacred edifices, their chalices, their ornaments, above 
all, the sacred writings.* The bishop and his priests 
were made responsible for the full and unreserved de- 
livery of these sacred possessions. Some from timidity, 
others considering that by such concessions it might be 
prudent to avert more dangerous trials, and that such 
treasures, sacred as they were, might be replaced in a 
more ilourishing state of the church, complied with 
the demands of the magistrate ; but, by their severer 
brethren, who, with more uncompromising courage, had 
refused the least departure from the tone of unqualified 
resistance, these men were branded with the nnTrriu 
ignominious name of Traditors.™ Tliis became ''™' 
the strong, the impassable, line of demarcation between 



> S« the grant ot ConataDtJne re- 

* There ia n »*:7 curjons and graphic 
account of the ngOTDas pcnjiibitlDD 
hi the saocd hooki id the Gesti Bpud 
Zenophilum in Rooth, toI. W. p. 103. 
The coJicn appear to hsre b«en onder 
ttw curt of the rtsdcrs, who w«ra of 



trade. There were s great number of 
(VdJces, each probably cectainiog one 
booh of the Scriptures. 

'° The DoimtiEU iaTnrisbl^ cnlled 
the CntholiG pnnjr the Traditon. S« 
tista and the Acts ol Dd- 
Martyr. 



300 THE SEE OF CARTHAGE. Book III. 

the coiitendini; factions. To the latest period of the 
conflict, the Donatiats described the Catholic party by 
tliat odious appellation. 

The primacy of the African Church was the object of 
ambition to these two parties : an unfortunate vacancy 
at this time kindled the smouldering embers of strifa. 
OHiMtibf MensuriuB had filled the see of Carthage with 
cuuuga. prudence and moderation during theee days of 
emergency. He was accused by the sterner zeal (S 
Donatus, a Numidian bishop, of countenancing at least 
the criminal concessions of the Traditors, It was said 
that he had deluded the Government by a subtle strata- 
gem ; he had substituted certain heretical writings for 
the genuine Scriptures ; had connived at their seizure;, 
and calmly seen them delivered to the flames. The 
Donatists either disbelieved, or despised as a paltry 
artifioe, this attempt to elude the glorious danger at 
resistance. But, during tlie life of Mensurius, his chfc 
ract^r and station had overawed the hostile pai 
Mensurius was summoned to Home, to answer on 
charge of the concealment of the deaccm Felix, accused 
of a political offence — the publication of a libel against 
the Emperor. On his departure, Mensurius entrusted 
to the deacons of the community the valuable vessels of 
gold and silver belonging to the church, of which he left 
an accurate inventory in the hands of a pious and aged 
woman. Mensui-ius died on his return to Carthage. 
Caecilian, a deacon of the church, was raised by the 
unanimous suffrages of the clei^ and people to the see 
of Carthage. He was consecrated by Felix, Bishop of 
Apthimga. Hia first step was to demand the vessels of 
the church. By the advice of Botras and Celeusios, 
two of the deacons, competitors it is said with Csecilian 
for the see, they were refused to a bishop irregularlu 



c'ha^^H 

a ^H 
laed^ 



r 



APPEAL TO THE CIVIL POWER. 301 

elected, and consecrated by a notorious Traditor. A 
Spaniali female, of noble birth and of opulence, accused 
of personal hostility to Ciecilian, animated the Car- 
thaginiao faction ; but the whole province assumed 
the right of interference with the appointment to the 
primacy, and DonatiiB, Eishop of Casas Nigrte, placed 
himself at the head of the opponent party. 

The commanding mind of Donatns swayed the counts 
leas hierarchy which crowded the different provinces of 
Africa. The Numidian biahopB took the lead; Secun- 
dus, the primate of Numidia, at the summons of 
Donatus, appeared in Carthage at the head of seventy 
of hia bishops. This self-installed Council of Jw"' n 
Carthage proceeded to oite Csecilian, who re- 9°'™- 
fused to recognise its authority. The Council declared 
-his election void. The consecration by a bishop guilty 
of tradition, was the principal ground oe which his 
election was annulled. But darker charges were openly 
advanced, or secretly murmured, against Cfeciiian; 
charges which, if not entirely imgrounded, show that 
the question of tradition had, during the persecution, 
divided the Christians into fierce and hostile factions. 
Ke was said to have embittered the last hours of those 
whose more daimtless resistance put to ahame the 
timorous compliance of Mensurius and his party. He 
had taken his station, with a body of armed men, and 
precluded the pious zeal of their adherents from obtain- 
ing access to the prison of those who had been seized 
by the Government ; " he had prevented, not merely tiie 
consolatory and inspiriting visits of kinsmen and friends, 
biit even the introduction of food and other comforts, in 
their state of star\-ing destitution. The Carthaginian 



a02 



COUNCIL OF EOMK 



b^l 






faction proceeded to elect Majorinus to the vacant 
Both parties appealed to the civil power ; and AnulJni 
the Prefect of AMca, who duriug the reign of Diocletian 
had seeu tlie Cliristians dragged before bis tribunal, and 
whose authority they then disclaimed with uncompro- 
mising unanimity, now saw them crowding in hostile 
factions to demand his interference in their dom<istic 
discords. 

The cause was referred to the imperial deciHion dt. 
Conatautine, At a later period the Doiiatists, 
worsted in the strife, bitterly reproached their advi 
saries with this appeal to the civil tribunal, " What hare 
Christians to do with kings, or bishops with palaces ? " * 
Their adversaries justly recriminatedj that they had 
been as ready as themselves to request the intervention 
of the Government. Constantino delegated the judge- 
meat in their cause to the biahopa of Gaul ; " but the first 
council was composed of a great majority of II 
conncii o( bishops ; and Rome, for the first time, witni 
^■""^ a public trial of a Christian cause before 

assembly of bishops, presided over by her prelate. 
Council was formed of the three Gallic bishops of Qt 
logne, of Autun, and of Aries. The Italian bishops (' 
may conjecture that these were considered the mi 



" Oiitalus, I, 33. 

P AugiistJDe, writing whrs (1m epl- 
ipol BuOioi'itj slooj ou > le'el 
luvt la or Gien higher Uian the 



It dare to assume 
« election of a I 



1 K^i»a 



ihop. - 
Cftofl ejn^copi judi- 
u. B. Natura] equity 



Christian comniisslaD, 
Optatas ascribes to Consi 

kh it is diAiculC 1o stcoacile with 
pDblic condact u rrganls Chtte. 

litf at Ma periol of his bl'e. The 

mdl el Rome wss bM A.D. 313, 

I Oclober. 

riie (tecrtes of the Council of Rome 
nnil of Arle. with other documenis on 
Hhject.mnjbefoundinthefiurtk ■ 



Chip. I. COUNCIL OF EOME. 303 

important sees, or were filled by the most influential 
prelates) were those of Milan, Cesena, Quintiano, Ilimini, 
Florence, Pisa, Faenza, Capua, Benevento, Terracina, 
Prsneste, Tres Tabemie, Ostia, TJrsiuum (Urbiniun), 
Forum Claudii. 

Cffidlian and Donatua appeared each at the head of 
ten bishopa of hia party. Both denounced their adver- 
Baries as gnilty of the crime of tradition. The partisans 
of Donatus rested their appeal on the invalidity uf an 
oi-dination by a bishop, Felix of Apthunga, who had 
been guilty of that delinquency. The party of Ceecilian 
accused almost the whole of the Numidian bishops, and 
Donatus himself, as involved in the same guilt. It was 
a wise and temperate policy in the Catholic party, to 
attempt to cancel all embittering recollections of the 
days of trial and infirmity ; to abolish all distinctiouH, 
wliich on one part led to pride, on the other to degra- 
dation ; to reconcCe, in those halcyon days of pi-osperity, 
the whole Christian world in one harmonious confederacy. 
This policy was that of the GoTernment. At this early 
period of his Christianity, if he might yet be called a 
Christian, Constantino was little likely to enter into 
the narrow and exclusive principles of the Donatists. 
As Emperor, Christianity was recommended to bis favour 
by the harmonising and tranquillising influence which it 
exercised over a large body of the people. If it broke 
up into hostile feuds, it lost its value as an ally or an 
instrument of civil government. But it was exactly 
this levelling of all religiouB distinctions, this liberal and 
comprehensive spirit, that would annihilate the less im- 
portant differences, wldeh struck at the vital principle 
of Donatiam. They had confronted all the malice of the 
persecutor, they had diadaiued to compromise any prin- 
ciple, to concede the minutest point ; and were thisy tc 



304 COCNCIL AT AKLES. Book III. 

abandon & BU[)eriority so hardly earned, and to acquiesce 
in the readmisaion of oil those who had forfeited their 
CJiristian privileges to the same rank ? \\'ere they not 
to exercise the high function of readmission into the 
fold with proper severity ? The decision of the Council 
was favourable to the cause of Csecihan. Donatus ap- 
pealed to the Emperor, who retained the heads of both 
parties in Italy, to allow time for the province to regain 
its quiet In defiance of the Emperor, both the leaders 
fled back to Afriea, to set themselves at the head of 
*4i.3n. their respective factions. The patient Con- 
"'*"* stantine summoned a ue\v, a more remote 
council at Aries. Ciecilian and thu African bishops 
were cited to appear in tliat distant province; public 
vehicles were furnished for their conveyance at tlie Em- 
peror's charge ; each bishop was attended by two of his 
inferior clergy, with three domestics. The Bishop of 
Aries presided in this Council, which confirmed the 
judgement of that in Kome. 

A second Donatus now appeared upon the scene, of 
more vigorous and more persevering character, greater 
ability, and with all the energy and sell'-confidence which 
enabled him to hold together the faction. The party 
now assumed the name of Donatists. On the death of 
Majorinus, Donatus succeeded to the dignity of Anti- 
Bishop of Carthage : the whole African province con- 
tinued to espouse the quarrel ; the authority of the 
Government, wliich liad been invoked by both parties, was 
BCOmftilly rejected by that against which the award was 
made. Three times was tlie deciisiou repeated in favour 
of the Catholic party, at Home, at Aries, and at Milan ; 
each time was more strongly established the 
self-evident truth, whicli has been so late re- 
fx>giiised by tlie Christiau world, the incompetency of an} 



r 



DONATCSTS PEEBECUTBD. 305 

Council to reconcile religious diEferences. The HufFragea 
of the many cannot bind the consciences, or enlighten 
the minds, or even overcome the obstinacy, of the few. 
Neither party can yield without abandoning the very 
principles by which they have been constituted a party. 
A commission issued to ^lius, Prefect of the district, 
to examine the charge against Felix, Bishop of Apthunga, 
gave a favourable verdicfi An imperial commisfiion of 
two delegates to Carthage, ratified the decision of the 
former councils. At every turn the Donatists protested 
against the equity of the decrees; they loudly com- 
plained of the unjust and partial influence exercised by 
OsiuB, Bishop of Cordova, over the mind of the Em- 
peror. At length the tardy indignation of tlie Govern- 
ment had recourse to violent measures. The D™»Ma« 
Donatist bishops were driven into exile, their p*"™""*- 
churches destroyed or sold, and the property seized for 
the imperial revenue. The Donatists defied the armed 
interference, as they had disclaimed the authority, of the 
Government. This first development of the principles 
of Christian sectarianism was aa stem, as inflexible, and 
as persevering, as in later times. The Donatists drew 
their narrow pale around their persecuted sect, and 
asserted themselves to be the only elect people of Christ ; 
the only people whose clergy could claim an unbroken 
apostolical succession, vitiated in all other communities 
(di Christians by the inexpiable crime of tradition. 
Wherever they obtained possession of a church they 
bamed the altar ; or, where wood was scarce, scraped 
off the infection of heretical communion ; they melted 
the cups, and sold, it was said, the sanctified metal for 
profane, perhaps for Pagan, uses ; they i-ebaptized all 




306 THE CIECUMCELLI0N3. 

who joined their sect; they made the virgins ret 
their vows ; tiiey would not even permit the bodies 
the Catholics to repose in peace, lest they should 
lute the common cemeteries. The implacable fac1 
darkened into a sanguinary feud. For the first 
human blood was shed in conflicts between followers of 
the Prince of Peace. Each party recriminated on the 
other, but neither denies the barbarous scenes of mas- 
sacre and licence which devastated the African cities. 
The Donatiats boasted of their martyrs, and the cruelties 
of the Catholic party rest on their own admission : they 
deny not, they proudly vindicate their barbarities — " X^ 
the vengeance of God to be defrauded of its victims ? 
— and they appeal to the Old Testament to justify, 
the examples of Moses, of Phtneaa, and of Elijah, 
Christian duty of slaying by thousands the renegadi 
or the unbelievera. 

In vain Constantino at length published an edict of 
peace : the afQicted province was rent asunder 
till the close of his reign, and during that of 
his son, by this religious warfare. For, on the other hand, 
Tbecircmn- the barbarous fanaticism of the Circum cell ions 
wiihmt involved the Donatist party in the guilt of in- 
surrection, and connected them with revolting atrocities, 
wliicb they were accused of countenancing, of exciting^ 
if not actually sanctioning by their presence, 
which in the opulent cities, or tlie well-ordered commi 



' This damning fnaage it fonml 
in Uw work of the Catholic Optatiu : 
" QnaH Dmnino in vindictam Dei niillus 
DMrcBtur occidi." Oompirc thewhole 
chapter, iit. 6. An able writer (Mr. 
Brigbl) (Bialory of Ihf Churchl has 
•b)aet«d to hii atitempnt. I adhere to \ 



of in- 
■ities, m 

Th«n 
nmoafl 



it. There ii a Tciy ttrong diacijj 
of the peraecutlDns which th«7 endured 
from the Calhollci in the letter pM 
in b; the Donatiat bishop Habet 
Deum in tho conlercnce held daring 
th; reign of HoDoriui. Apod Dnplg 
Ko. 258. in fine. 



Cbaf. I. THE CIRCUMCELLI0K3. 307 

nitiea, led to fierce and irrGconcileftible contention, grew 
np among the wild borderers on civilisation into fiiiia- 
tical frenzy. Where Christianity has outstripped civOi- 
Batiou, and has not liad time to effect its beneficent and 
humanising change, wiiether in the bosom oi' an ohi 
Bociety, or within the limits of Bavage life, it becomes, 
in times of violent escitement, instead of a pacific prin- 
ciple to assuage, a new element of ungovernable strife, 
The long peace which had been enjoyed by the province 
of Africa, and the flourishing corn-trade which it eon- 
ducted as the gi'anary of Eorae and of the Italian pro- 
vinces, had no doubt extended the pursuits of agriculture 
into the Numidian, Grsetulian, and Mauritaniau villages. 
The wild tribes had gradually become industrious pea- 
sants, and among them Christianity had found an open 
field for its exertions, and the increasing agricultural 
settlements bad become Christiau bisboprice. Bui the 
savage was yet only half-tamed ; and no sooner had the 
flames of the Donatist conflict spread into these peaceful 
districts, than the genuine Christian was lost in the fiery 
marauding cliild of the desert. Maddened by oppres- 
sion, wounded in his religious feelings by Ihe expulsion 
and persecution of the bishops, from his old nature he 
resumed the fierce spirit of independence, the contempt 
for the laws of property, and the burning desire of 
revenge. Of his new religion he retained only the per- 
verted language, or rather that of the Old Testament, 
with an implacable hatred of all hostile sects ; a stern 
ascetic continence, which perpetually broke out into 
paroxysms of unbridled licentiousness; and a fanatic 
passion for martyrdom, which assumed the acts of a kind 
of methodical insanity. 

The Circumcellions commenced their ravages during 
the reign of Constantino, and continued in arms during 



308 THE CiaCDSfCELLIONs. Boob 1*^ 

that of his anccesaor Conatans. No sooner had the 
provincial authorities received inatructiona to reduce the 
province by force to religious unity, than the Circnm- 
celUons, who had at first confined their ravages to 
disorderly and hasty incursions, broke out into open 
revolt.' They defeated one body of the imperial troops, 
and killed Uraaciue, the Boman general. They aban- 
doned, by a simultaneous impulse, their agricultural 
pursuits; they proclaimed themselves the instruments 
of Divine justice, and the protectors of the oppressed ; 
they first asserted the wild theory of the civil equality 
of mankind, which has so often, in later periods of the 
world, become the animating principle of Christian 
fanaticism; they proclaimed the abolition of slavery; 
they thrust the prond and opulent master from I 
chariot, and made him walk by the side of his « 
who, in his turn, was placed in the stately vehicle ; 1 
cancelled all debts, and released the debtors ; 
moat sanguinary acts were perpetrated in the nan 
religion, and Christian language was profaned b 
association with their atrocities. Their leadere " 
the Captains of the Saints ; * the battle hymn, ' 
to God ! " Their weapons were not swords, for Clu 
had forbidden the use of the sword to Peter, but 1 
and massy clubs, with which they beat their miseralj 
victims to death." They were bound by vo 
severest continence, but the African temperament, 

■ The Circomcel lions wera uujie- names which Ihey asiiimeJ. 

quBioted with the Latin InDgiinge, Uenm appous amiiag Ihe 

and are said to have spoken onlf Uib bishops in a conlereDce held witli d 
Punic of the arnntry. : Calhcliu at Carthage, i. 

' AngLstiae asacrla that Ihe^ were the report of Iha confa 

led by their dorgy, t, b. p. &75. Donatislan Monuments oiUeoted L 

" The Donatista antielpated our Dupin, at the end of his edition J 

?flrilani in lln»e strange i-eligious OpIatuB, 



Chap, J, 



PASSION FOR MAHTYRDOM. 



its state of feveriBli excitement, was too strong for 
the bonds of fanatical restraint ; the companies of the 
Saints not merely abused the privileges of war by the 
most licentious outrages on the females, but were at- 
tended by troops of drunken prostitutes whom they 
called their sacred virgins. But the most extraordinary 
development of their fanaticism, was their Pi^oaiar 
rage for martyrdom. When they could not "^y"^- 
obtain it from the sword of the enemy, they inflicted it 
upon tliemselvea. The ambitious martyr declared him- 
self a candidate for the crown of glory : he then gave 
himself up to every kind of reveliy, pampering, as it 
were, and fattening the victim for sacrifice. When he 
had wrought himself to the pitch of frenzy, he rushed 
out, and, witli a sword in one hand and money in the 
other, he threatened death and offer-ed reward to the 
first comer who would satisfy his eager longings for the 
glorious crown. They leaped from precipices; they 
went into the Pagan temples to provoke the vengeiiuce 
of the worshippers. 

Such are the excesses to which Christianity is con 
stantly liable, as the religion of a savage and uncivilised 
people ; but, on the other hand, it must be laid donii 
as a political axiom equally universal, that this fanati- 
cism rarely bursts out into disordere dangerous to 
society, unless goaded and maddened by persecution." 

Donatism was the fatal schism of one province of 
Christendom: the few communities formed on these 
rigid principles in Spain and in Itome died away in 
neglect; but however diminished its influence, it dis- 
tracted the African province for three centuiies, and 



310 THE D0NAT13TS. Book lU 

waa only finally extirpated with Christianity itself, bv 
the all-absorbing progresa of Mohammedanism. At 
one time Constaatine resorted to milder measures, and 
issued aa edict of toleration. But in the reign of Con- 
etans, tlie persecution was renewed with more anrelent- 
ing severity. Two imperial ofBcers, Paul and Macuriua, 
were sent to reduce the province to religious unity. 
The Circnmcellious encountered them with obstinate 
valour, but were totally defeated in the sanguinary 
battle of Bagnia. In the latfir reigns, when the lawa 
against heresiy became more frequent and severe, tlie 
Donatists were named with marked reprabation in the 
condemnatory edicts. Yet, in the time of Honorius, 
they boasted, iu a conference with the Catholics, that 
they equally divided at least the province of Numidia, 
and that the Catholics only obtained a majority of 
bishops by the unfair means of subdividing the sees. 
This conference was held in the vain, though then it 
might not appear ungrounded, hope of reuniting the 
great body of the Donatists with the Catholic com- 
munion. The Donntisfs, says Gibbon, with his usual 
-sarcasm, and more than his usual truth, had received a 
practical lesson on the consequences of their own prin- 
ciples. A small sect, the Maximinians, had been formed 
within their body, who asserted themselves to be the 
ouly genuine Church of God, denied the efficacy of the 
sacraments, disclaimed the apostolic power of the clergy, 
and rigidly appropriated to their own narrow sect the 
meiita of Christ, and the hopes of salvation. But 
neither this fatal warning, nor the eloquence of St. 
Augustine, wrought mnch effect on the Puritans of 
Africa ; they still obstinately denied the legality of 
Csciliau's ordination ; still treated their adversaries as 
the dastardly traditora of the Sacred Writings ; still 



CHA>. I. 



THE DONATISTS. 



311 



dwelt apart in the unquestioning conyiction that they 
were the sole subjects of the kingdom of Heaven ; that 
to them alone belonged the privilege of immortality 
through Christ, while the rest of the world, the un- 
worthy followers of Christ, not less than the blind and 
unconverted Heathen, were perishing in their outcast 
and desperate state of condemnation. 



7 Donatists are mentioned at the 
end of the sixth century (see Gregory 
the Gnat, EpUt. i. 72-75, ii« 33), 



and are still powerful enough to eject 
the Catholics from their churches 
Greg. Epist. iii. 32-ar>, t. €&. 



^ 



812 THE EAST STILL FAGAIi. Boos HL 



CHAPTEE IL 



Constaatiuc becomea sole Emperor. 



Bt the victory over Maxentius, Constantine had be- 
Tho emi come master of half the Roman world. Chris- 
EiiiL Rum tianity, if it had not contributed to the sucpesB, 
shared the advantage of the triumph. By the Edict of 
Milan the Christians had resumed all their former 
rights aa citizens, their chnrchea were reopened, their 
publio services recommenced, and their silent work of 
aggression on the hostile Paganism began again under 
the most promising auspices. The equal favour with 
which they were beheld hy the sovereign, appeared both 
to their enemies and to themselves an open declaration 
on their side. The public acta, the laws, and the medals 
of Consfantine,' show how the lofty eclectic indifferent- 
ism of the Emperor, which extended impartial protec- 
tion over all the conllicting faiths, or attempted to 
mingle together their least inharmonious elements, 
gradually but slowly gave place to the progressive in- 
fluence of Christianity. Christian bishops appeared as 
regular attendants upon the court ; the internal dissen- 
sions of Christianity became affairs of state. The Pagan 

• Eckhel loppoMs that the Hfnthen moiiftHm, nunqunm in f& snt Christi 

sfmbola disapprarei tiiim ttie coitis imHginem aut CoDalaDtlni eSgiem 

of CoDAtantJii? ail«r hit victory aver craoe iasi^em reperj« . , , . Iq 

iiginiua. Doctr, Nnm. id Conalant. donaullia jam mcMiognimtna Christ 

I may add here another observation $ f iuueiitnr labaro KOt Tesillo. 

"F this great authority on lucb sab- jam in areft nutnmi Bolitari* einiliiit, 

jecta: " EiciJla iniivetsam Constnntini jura aliia, ut patsbjt, compsret moJis.' 



THE CLERICAL OBDEE. 



party saw, with inei'eafling apprelienpion for their own 
authority and the fate of Home, the period of the 
secular games, on the due celebration of which de- 
pended the duration of the Eoman sovereignty, pass 
away unlionoured.'' It was an extraordinary 
change in the constitution of the WeBtem 
world, when the laws of the empire issued from the 
court of Treves, and Italy and Africa awaited the 
changes in their civil and religious constitution, from 
the seat of government on the barbarous German 
frontier, ITie munificent grant of Constantino for the 
restoration of tiie African churches, had appeared to 
commit him in favour of the Christian party, and had 
perhaps indirectly contributed to inflame the diesensioES 
in that province. 

A new law recognised the clerical order as a distinct 
and priviteged class. It exempted them from °***? ""^ 
the onerous municipal offices, which had begun tiiemw. 
to press heavily upon the more opulent inhabitants of 
the towns. It is the surest sign of misgovemment, 
when the higher classes shrink from the posts of honour 
and of trust. During the more flourishing days of the 
empire, the Decorionate, the chief municipal dignity, 
had been the great object of provincial ambition. 
The Decurions formed the Senates of the towns; they 
supplied the magistrates from their body, and had the 
right of electing them.' 

Under the new financial system introduced by Dio- 
detian, the Decurions were made responsible for the full 
amount of taxation imposed by the cataster or assess- 



' SaTign? RemiHlHi Reelit, i. 18, i 
Compans ths vholg took of tha Theo- : 
Code, De DecartoulbuB. Per- | 



314 



THE CLEEICAl ORDEE. 



ment on the town and district. As the payment b 
more burthensome or difficult, the tenants, or ev 
proprietors, either became insolvent or fled their countr 
But the inexorable revenue still exacted from the Dec 
rions the whole sum assessed on their town or distriof 
The office itself grew into disrepute, and the law i 
obliffed to force that upon the reluctant citizen of wes 
or character, which had before been an object of e 
emulation and competition.^ The Christians obtaini 
the exemption of their ecclesiastical order from thei 
civil offices. The exemption was grounded on the jui 
plea of its incompatibility with their religious dutieg 
The Emperor declared, in a letter to Ciecilian, Bishop « 
Carthage, that the Christian priesthood ought not to I ' 
withdrawn from the worship of God, which is the priid 
cipal source of the prosperity of the empire. The effee 
of this immunity shows the oppressed and disorg 
state of society.' Numbers of persons, in order to seem 
this exemption, rushed at once into the clerical order 4 
the Christians; and this manifest abuse demanded e 
immediate modification of the law. None were to I 
admitted info the sacred older except on the \ 
i.D. 310. of a religious charge, and then those only whoi 
^"'t£*"Se- poverty exempted them imm the municipi 
eariuQiit. functions.' Those whose property i 
upon them the duty of the Decurionate, were ordered t 



DQ the taiBlJon or Ibt empire, in the 
TrtuisactioDs of ihe Berlla Acaderoy , 
and tnuiElBtel in the Csmbridge Clat- 
sIchI ReHsrdiu. 

• The offieen of the joy«l hoQas- 
hold, and thair deacendinCs, hid tlie 
aune emnptioii, wbidi mtt likewiae 
eiteodod to the Jewish arehiijiiagDgl 



or elders. Le Beau, IS 
Theodos. ivi. 8, 2. 

The priraU sod the Fliminn, \> 
itie DecurioDB, were eumpt (Voia a 
Uix, iBferiDr offices. Cod. Theodos. ij 



See the Tarioui b 

jeet, Codu Thcod«, i 

Cod, TbeodoB. it 



D t}^ « 



■WAHS WITH LICINICS. 



313 



abandon their religious profession. SncL was the despotio 
power of the sovereign, to which the Christian Church 
still submitted, either on the principle of passive obe- 
dience, or in gratitude for the protection of the civil 
authority. The legislator interfered without scruple in 
the domestic administration of the Christian comniu- 
nity, and the Christians received the Imperial edicts in 
silent flubmisaion. The appointment of a Christian, the 
celebrated Lactantius, to superintend the education of 
Crispin, the eldest son of the Emperor, was at once 
a most decisive aud most influential step towards the 
public declaration of Christianity aa the religion of the 
Imperial family. Another important law, the ground- 
work of the vast property obtained by the Church, gave 
it the fiillest power to receive the bequests of the pious. 
Their right of holding property had been admitted appa- 
rently by Alexander Severua, annulled by Diocletiau, 
and was now conceded in the most explicit terms by 
Constantine.'' 

But half the world remained stCl disunited from the 
dummion of Constantine and of Christianity. The first 
war with Licinius had been closed by the wurswiui 
battles of Cibalte and Mardia, and a new parti- i-"^"- 
tion of the empire. It was succeeded by a hollow and 
treacherous peace of nine years,' The favour shown by 
Constantine to his Christian subjects, seems to have 
thrown Licinius upon the opposite interest. The Edict 
of Milan had been issued in the joint names of the two 



irabiliqiie 



" Habtit unusquiBqna 
■anctis^lmo CstlioliciE no 
coacilio, decedens bononu 

judicU. Kihil ert, qaod mgU hoini- 
1 Bib'ii debetUT, qoam at laprnno 



voluntaiii, pint(|uam aiiud jam r^lle 
non ptHsint, libor sit status, et Uoais, 
qood iterum non redil, [mpeiium. C. 
Th. in. 2, 4, De Episnoris- Tlii" b« 
is Bsignal U> the yen 321. 
< 314 to S23, 



S16 L1C1NID8 BECOMES Book IU. 

Emperors. In his conflict witli MaximiQ, Licinius had 
LTcnged the oppressions of Christianity on their most 
relentless adversary. But when the crisis approached 
which was to decide the fete of the whole empire, as 
Constantiiie had adopted every means of securing their 
cordial support, so Licinius repelled the allegiance of 
his Christian subjecta by disfavour, by mistrust, by ex- 
pulsion from offices of honour, by open persecution, till, 
in the laoguf^e of the ecclesiast.ical historian, the world 
was divided into two regions, those of day and of night'' 
The vices as well as the policy of Licinius might disin- 
LkMuiw cline him to endure the importunate presence 
S3S^" of the Christian bishops in his court; but he 
"••^ might disguise his hostile disposition to the 
churchmen under his declared dislike of eunuchs and of 
courtiers," — the vermin, as he called them, of the 
palace. The stern avarice of Licinius would be con- 
trasted to his disadvantage with the profuse liberality 
of Constantino; his looser debaucheries with the severer 
morals of the Western Emperor. Licinius proceeded to 
purge his household troops of those whose inclination to 
his rival he might, not without reason, mistrust ; none 
were permitted to retain their rank who refused to 
sacrifice. He prohibited the synods of the clergy, which 
he naturally apprehended might degenerate into conspi- 
racies in favour of his rivaL He confined the bishops to 
the care of their own dioceses." He affected, in his care 
for the public morals, to prohibit the promisciious 
worship of men and women in the churches;' and ip 



^ Eiwb. ViU CoDsUnt. i. 49. 

^ ^Mdanum rt Anlioonim omDimi 
Tebement dDtaitur, tinens sorimtqu 
pnlatii Ktappellaiu. Aui'. Vict Epit. 



r 



i 



MORE DECIDEDLY PAOAX. 317 

Eulted the sanctity of the Christian worship, by com- 
manding that it should be celebrated in the open air. 
The edict prohibiting all access to the prisons, though a 
Btrong and unwilling testimony to the charitable exer- 
tions of the Christians, and by their writers represented 
as an act of wanton and unexampled inhumanity, was 
caused probably by a jealous policy, rather than by 
wanton cruelty of temper. It is quite clear that the 
prayers of the Chiiatians, perhaps more worldly weapons, 
were armed in favour of Constantine. The Eastern 
Churches would be jealous of their happier Western 
brethren, and naturally would be eager to bask in the 
equal sunshine of Imperial favour. At length, either 
fearing the effect of their prayers with the Deity whom 
they addressed,'* or their influence in alienating the 
minds of their votaries irom his own cause to that of 
him who, in the East, was considered the champion of 
the Christian cause, Licinius commanded the Cliriatian 
churches in Pontus to be closed ; he destroyed some of 
them, perhaps for defiance of his edicts. Some acts of 
persecution took place; the Chi'istians fled again into 
the country, and began to conceal themselves in the 
woods and caves. Many instances of violence, some of 
martyrdom, occurred,'' particularly in Pontns. There 



> IuiTiXi!irBcu yip abic frfiiTa i Lirinio miirtfres fndaat prEeteiii iinin 
irip B&ToD Titi tix"t miytiSiri | epkuopos." Campoie RnlasTt. Them 
fai^if tdSto AoTifii/HjiDi, iw" fiirfp | is pi-eai difficulty nbont Eaaileus, 
raiBta'ptXiiSsB'^tKfasiriirTaitpir- Bishop of Atnssi. He a gentrallr 
■nir Tjiiis vol tJv BiAr IKK/iaSv icckoncd by the GrwJt writeii u a 
rivtiFTo. Euseb. s. 8. martyr {see Pagi ad an. Sltf, D, I.); 

4 Sozoinen. H. E. i. T, a»erU that but he Is expressly etat«d by I'hiloa- 
nunj of the clergy, as well as bishops, torgius (lib. i.), conhnned by Athn- 
were mailyred. Dodwell, howecer, nasius (Orat. 1, cootrs Ariaooa), to 
ttbesrves (De Paucitale UBrtymiD. 9 1 ). 
CaviBDt rabulaUii'H ni> qaoi alios luh | 



816 



PAGA^^SM OF Licisms. 



was a wide-spread apprebension tliat b new and general 
persecution was about to break out, when the Emperor 
of the West moved, in the language of the Christian 
historian, to rescue the whole of mankiDd from the 
tyranny of one.' 

Whether or not, in fact, Licinius avowed the immi- 
nent war to be a sti-ife for master}' between the two 
religions, the decisive struggle between the ancient 
goda of Eome and the new divinity of the Christians ;' 
whether he actually led the chief officers and his most 
eminent political partisans into a beautifiU conseorated 
grove, crowded with the images of the gods ; and ap- 
pealed, by the light of blazing torches, and amid the 
smoke of sacrifice, to the gods of their ancestors against 
his atheistic adversaries, the followers of a foreign and 
unknown deity, whose ignominious sign was displayed in 
the vau of their armies ; nevertheless, the propagation of 
such stories shows how completely, according to their 
own sentiments, the interests of Christianity were iden- 
tified with the cause of Constaotine.' On both sides 
were again marshalled all the supernatural terrors 
which religious hope or superstitious awe conld sum- 
mon. Diviners, soothsayers, and Egyptian magicians, 
animated the troops of Lidiiius." The Christians in 
the army of Coustantine attributed all his success to 
the prayers of the pious bishops who accompaviied his 
army, and especially to the holy Labarum, whose bearer 
passed unhurt among showers of fatal javelin&* 



^Tpiirq. Socomi-n, i. 7. 



livenal eminre. 
' ViL Conrtnnt. li. 4. 

■ Easeb. Vit. Conrtaut. i, 49. 

■ EuKbiiudKlnratbatbchnrdtliii 
Dm the lipc of Conrtnntine falmself. 
Be mall, who in hii piaic gave up 



BATTLE OF HADBIAMOPLE. 



fCHAr. II 
The battle of Hadrianople, and the naval victory of 
Crispufi, decided the fate of the world, and the j^']? "i 
establishment of Christianity as the religion of ^.b. saa. 
the empire. The death of Licinius reunited the whol* 
Eoman world under the eeeptre of Constantine. 

EusebiuB ascribes to Constantine, during this battle, an 
art of Christian mercy, at least as unusual as the appear- 
ance of the banner of the cross at the head of the Boman 
army. He issued orders to spare the lives of his enemies, 
and offered rewards for all captives brought in alive. 
Even if this be not strictly true, its exaggeration or in- 
Tention, or even its relation as a praiseworthy act, shows 
the new spirit which was working in the mind of man.' 

Among the first acts of the sole Emperor of the world, 
were the repeal of all the edicts of Licinius against the 
Christians, the release of all prisoners from the dungeon 
or the mine or tLe eervile aad humiliating occupations 
to which some had been contemptuously condemned in 
the manufactories conducted by women; the recall of 
all the exiles ; the restoration of all who had been de- 
prived of their rank in the army, or in the civil service ; 
the restitution of all property of which they had been 
despoiled, — that of the martyrs to the legal heirs, where 
there were no heirs, to the Church. The property of the 
churches was not only restored, but the power to receive 
donations in land, already granted to the Western 
cliurches, was extended to the Eastern. The Emperor 
himself set the example of giving back all that had 
been confiscated to the state. 

Constantine issued two edicts, recounting all these 
exemptions, restitutions, and privileges — one addressed 






320 CONDUCT OF CONSTANTINE. 

to the Churches, the other to the cities of the East ; tho 

latter alone ia extant. Ita tone might certainly indicate 
that Conataotine considered the contest with Licinius as, 
JQ some degree, a war of religion. His oivn triamj^ 
and the fate of bis enemies are adduced as unanswer- 
able evidences to the superiority of that God whose 
followers bad been so cruelly persecuted. The resto- 
ration of the Christians to all their property aod immo- 
nities, was an act not merely of juatioe and humanity, 
tut of gratitude to the Deity. 

But Constantino now appeared more openly to the 
whole world as the head of the Christian community. 
He sat, not in the Roman senate deliberating on the 
affairs of the empire, but presiding in a council of 
Christian bishops, aummooed from all parta of 
the world, to decide, aa of iufinite importance 
to the Eoman Empire, a contested point of the Christian 
faith. The council was held at Niciea, one of the most 
ancient of the Eastern cities. The transactions of the 
Council, the questions which were agitated before it, and 
the decrees which it issued, will be postponed for the 
present, in order that tliis important controversy, which 
so long divided Christianity, may best be related in a 
continuous narrative : we pass to the following year. 

Up to this period Christianity had seen much to 
copdnctot admire, and little that it would venture to dis- 
t^anttoB approve, in the public acts or in the domeatio 
eQemiHL character of Constantine. His offences against 
the humanity of the Gospel would find palliation, or 
rather vindication and approval, in a waiTior and a 
sovereign. The age was not yet so fully leavened with 
Christianity as to condemn the barbarity of that Roman 
pride which exposed without scruple the brave captive 
chieftains of the German tribes in the atnphitheatn 



QUP.U, TO HIS ENEMIES. 321 

Again, after the triumph of Constantine over Maxentiiia, 
this bloody spectacle had been renewed at Treves, on a 
new victory of Constantine over the Barbarians. Tlie 
extirpation of the family of a competitor for the empirts 
would pass ae the usual, perhaps the necessary, policy 
of the times. The public hatred would applaud the 
death of the voluptuous Maxentius, and that of his 
family would be the inevitable consequences of his guilt. 
Licinius had provoked his own fate by resistance to the 
will of God and his persecution of the rehgion of Christ, 
Kor was the fall of Licinius followed by any general 
proscription ; his son lived for a few years to be the 
undistinguished victim of a sentence which involved 
others in whom the public mind took far deeper interest. 
Licinius himself was permitted to live a short time at 
Thessalonica." It is said by some that his life was 
guaranteed by a solemn oath, and that he was permitted 
to partake of the hospitality of the conqueror.* Yet his 
death, though the brother-in-law of Constantine, was but 
an expected event.'' The tragedy which took place in 
the family of Constantine betrayed to the surprised and 
anxious world, that, if his outward demeanour showed 



' Le Bau (Hilt, du Bns fCmpir?, 
i. B20) neitai with grait feimcM 
the varying Kccounta of the death of 
LiciDiDs, BDd the motives which are 
taxi to haTB prompted it. But he 
protnla to infer that Liduiuj miuC 
hacc beea jwMj of »m« Dew crime, 
to induce ConatnntinB to violnte hia 
nlema oath. 

■ Cratn rdigioa 
Thi!^oiiioB privBtD 
Kutrop. lib, r, 

^ EiiMbiiu tKjs tbn 
VOL. 11. 



death bj the Jaws of war, and opcnly 
approvee of his esecution and thnt of 
the other enemies of God. Hiiuf 

tltav TiiMplB, . . . Kal ai-iiAAviTD. 
T^Jc icporitmvaav ^fxovrts timti, 
cl Tqt Sto/taxia! irinBouXoi, How 
singularly does tbifl contra^ with thtf 
pass^ above I See p. 319 (Vit. 
Const, ii. IS) bigotiy and mtrcj ad. 
TBDcing hand in hand — the stemei 
creed ovei^powering the GospeJ. 



322 CKISPU8, SON OF CO:;STAKTIXE. Book Itt ■ 

respect or veneration for Christianity, its milder doc- 
trines had made little impresaion on the uuBoftened 
Pa>^niam of his heart. 

Crispus, the son of Constantine by Miiiervina, his 
1.0. 3a«. first wife, was a youth of high and brilliant 
cnsf«m,taa promise. In his early yeare his ediicatioa had 
lino. been entrusted to the celebrated Lactantius, 

and there ia reason to suppose that he was imbued 
by his eloquent preceptor with the Christian doc- 
trines ; but the gentler sentiments instilled by the new 
faith had by no means unnerved the vigour or tamed 
the martial activity of youth. Had he been content 
with the calmer and more retiring virtues of the Chri»- 
tian, without displaying the dangerous qualifications of 
a warrior and a statesmen, he might have escaped the 
fatal jealousy of his father, and the arts which were no 
doubt employed for his ruin. In his oampaign against 
the Barbarians, Crispus had shown himself a worthy son 
of Constantine, and his naval victory over the fleet of 
Lieinins had completed the conquest of the empire. 
The conqueror of Maxeutius and of Licioius, the undia- 
puted master of the Roman world, might have been 
expected to stand superior to that common iJiiliug of 
weak monarehs, a jealous dread of the heir to their 
throne. The unworthy fears of Constantine were be- 
trayed by an edict inconsistent with the early promise 
of his reign. He had endeavoured, soon after hia 
accession, to repress the odious crime of delation; a 
rescript now appeared, inviting, by large reward and 
liberal promise of favour, those informations which he 
had before nobly disdained ; and this edict seemed to 
betray the apprehensions of the Government, that some 
widely ramified and darkly orf!;anised conspiracy was 
afoot. But if such eons^iraoy existed, the Government 




CilAf. II. CRISFDB — LICINIUS — FAUSTA. 323 

refused, by the secrecy of its own proceedings, to en- 
lighten the public mind. 

Rome itself, and the whole Roman world, heard with 
horror and amnzemeut, that io the midst of the eolumu 
festival, which was celebrating with the utmost isouiof 
splendour the twentieth year of the Emperor's '!"^' 
reign, his eldest boh had been suddenly seized, a'"- ' 
and, either without trial, or after a liurried examination, 
had been transported to the shore of Istria, and had 
perished by an obscure death. '^ Nor did Crispus fall 
alone ; the young Licinius, the nephew of Constantine, 
who had been spared after his father's death and vainly 
honoured with the title of Ctesar, shared his fate. The 
aword of justice or of cruelty, once let loose, raged 
against those who were suspected as partisans of the 
dangerous Crispus, or as implicated in the wide-spread 
conspiracy, till the bold satire of an eminent ofBcer of 
state did not scruple, in some lines privately circulated, 
to compare the splendid but bloody times with those of 
Nero.'' 

But this was only the first, act of the domestic tragedy ; 
the death of the Emperor's wife Fausta, the naihat 
partner of twenty years of wedlock, the mother *'"""*■ 
of his three sui'viving sons, increased the general horror. 
81ie was suffocated in a bath, which had been heated to 
an insupportable degree of temperature. Many mnlours 



° Vict. ICpit. rn ConataDtlao. Eutrop. death o( Crispas. Sozonica, \ 

lib. I. Zwimiis, iJ. c S9. SidDoiuf, nlolts the notioa of Ihe code 

T. EfiA. 8. Of the HClaaiuticid hit- the 4a<th of Ci-iepna with th< 

tnriaDs, Philoitor^ui (lib. it. 4) atlri- tioii of CoDstantiiis, admits i 

bata! the death of Cri>puB ta the arts I. i. a. 5. 

of hi) swptnother. liesdJa » strangs ' The Consnl Albinos,— 

, itarj, that Conatactitie was pnlsoced Snlornl anret mcUt iiuli nqn 

bj his brolhcra in rerruge for the SuntliEC nnnm™ kiI Smnli 



r 



EEMOESB OP CONSTANTINE. 



] 



were propagated throughout the empire concerning 
dark transaction, of which the real secret was no doi 
coEcealed, if not in the bosom, within the palace <rf 
Constantine. The awful crimes which had thrilled the 
scene of ancient tragedy, were said to have polluted the 
imperial chamber. The guilty step-mother had either, 
like PhEedra, revenged the insensibility of the youthful 
Crispus by an accusation of incestuous violence, or the 
crime, actually perpetrated, had involved them both in 
the common guilt and ruin. la accordance with the 
former story, the miserable Constantine had discovered 
too late the machinations which had stained his hand 
with the blood of a guiltless son : in the agony of his 
remorse he had fasted forty days ; he had abstained 
from .the use of the bath; he had proclaimed his o\ 
guilty precipitancy, and the innocence of his eon, 
raising a golden statue of the murdered Crispus, 
the simple but emphatic inscription, " To my unfc 
tunate son." The Christian mother of Constantii 
Helena, had been the principal agent in the detecl 
of the wicked Fausta ; it was added, that, besides 
imnatural passion for her step-son, she was found 
have demeaned herself to the embraces of a slave. 

It is dangerous to attempt to reconcile with prol 
bility these extraordinary events, which so often suri 
in the strange reality of their circumstances, the wild< 
fictions. But, according to the ordinary course of things' 
Crispus would appear the victim of political rather than 
of domestic jealousy. The innocent Licinius might be 
an object of suspicion, as implicated in a conspiracy 
against the power but not against the honour of Con- 
stantine. The removal of Crispus opened the succession 
of the throne to the sons of Fausta. The passion of 
maternal ambition is much more consistent with hni 




Cais. IL PAGAS ACCOTnTT Of THIS ETENT. 

nature tlian the incestuous love of a step-mother, ad- 
Tanced in life and with many children, towarda her 
husband'e Bon. The guilt of compassing the death of 
Crispus, whether by the atrocious accusations of a 
Fhsedra, or by the more vulgar arta of common court 
intrigue, might come to hght at a later period ; and the 
indignation of the Emperor at having been deluded into 
the execution of a gallant and blameless son, the desire 
of palliating to the world and to hia own conscience his 
own criminal and precipitate weakness by the most 
unrelenting revenge on the subtlety with which he had 
been circumvented, might madden him to a second act 
of relentless barbarity." 

But at all events the unanimous consent of the Pagan , 
and most of the Christian authorities, as well ffo ac- 
as the expressive silence of Eusebius, indicates event, 
the unfavourable impression made on the public mind 
by these household barbarities. But the most remark- 
able circumstance is, the advantage which was taken 
of this event by the Pagan party to throw a dark 
shade over the conversion of Coustantine to the Chris- 
tian religion. Zoaimus has preserved tliis report; but 
there is good reason for supposing that it was a rumour, 
eagerly propagated at the time by the more desponding 
TOtaries of Paganism.' In the deep agony of remorse, 
Constantine eagerly inquired of the ministers of the 
ancient religions, whether their lustrations could purity 
the soul from the blood of a son. The unaccommodating 
priesthood acknowledged the inefficacy of their rites in 
B case of snch inexpiable atrocity," and Constantine 



• Gibbon tuu Uirown doubts on the I of Zoaimas. 

tual drath of Fannti, Tol.lil.p. 110. i Aomrdiiig to SoionwD, whuw 

' Stt U«7ne'i HDta on tlii> punge { nuraUve, aa Biyne obacrrra ',naM of 



o26 



BEMOESE OF OONSTAwTINB. 



BooxaC 



remained to struggle with the unappeased and nn- 
atoned horrors of conscience. An Egyptian, on his 
journey from Spain, passed through Eome, and, being 
admitted to the intimacy of some of the females about 
the court, explained to the Emperor that the religion of 
Christ possessed the power of cleansing the soul from 
ail sin. From that time Constantine placed himseif 
entirely in tlie hands of the Christians, and abandoneil 
altogether the sacred rites of his ancestors. ]^h 

If Constantine at this time had been long an aTow^jj^l 
and sincere Cliristian, this story falls to the ground ft V 
but if, according to my view, there was stilt something of 
ambiguity in the favour shown by Constantine to Chris- 
tianity, if it still had something rather of the sagacious 
statesman than of the serious proselyte, there may be 
some slight groundwork of truth in this fiction. Con- 
stantine may have relieved a large portion of his sub- 
jects from grievous oppression, and restored their plun- 
dered property ; he may have made munificent donations 
for the maintenance of their ceremonial ; he may have 
permitted the famous Labarum to exalt the courage of his 
Christian soldiery ; he may have admitted their represen- 



allua a 



1 the E 



cleni 



filinl bloixt. 
the legal cpremonial of Paganism, nc 
tbe prJDi-Jples of the later Platonifu 
could aflbrd any hop« or pardon t 
the mucdenr. Juliw, ipeaking t 
CoiutaDtiDe !'Jn Osar.), isdaualt 






th« 



divine fo^rei 

~ S3 with which the Pagan 

. paitj judgal of tlie masiirEs of CoB- 
e tOin whidi 
La hiB edior. discouragia^ 



divii 



"Hair 



railed I 



wir 



le adTontagn of diviuatioa, wbicb 
had pTKlictfd hia awn Eplandid boo- 
oatea, ha was jcoloas lot the pn>> 
phetlc art should be equally prodigal 
glorloai promiAt to olhan." 



r 



REMOaSE OF CONSTANTINE. 



327 



tatives to his court, endeavoured to alluy tbeir fierce feuda 
in Africa, and sanctioned by bis presence the meeting of 
the Council of Niciea to decide on the new controversy 
which began to distract the Christian world; he may 
have proclaimed himself, in short, the worshipper of 
the Christiana' God, whose favourites seemed likewise 
to be those of fortune, and whose enemies were devoted 
to ignominy and disaster {such is his constant lan- 
guage) : '' but of the real character and the profoimder 
truths of the reUgion he may still have been entirely, 
or, perhaps, in some degree disdainfully, ignorant ; the 
lofty indifferentiam of the Emperor predominated over 
the obedience of the convert towards the new iaith. 

But it was now the man, abased by remorse, by the 
terrors of conscience, it may be by supwetitious horrors, 
who sought refuge against the divine Nemesis, the 
ayeoging FurieB, which haunted his troubled spirit. It 
would be the duty as well as tlie interest of an influen- 
tial Christian to seize ou the mind of the royal proselyte, 
and, while it was thus prostrate in its weakness, to enforce 
more atrongly the perscmal sense of religion upon the 
afflicted soul. And if the Emperor was understood to 
have derived the slightest consolation under this heavy 
burden of conscious guilt from the doctrines of Chris- 
tianity — if his remorse and despair were allayed or 
assuaged — nothing was more likely than that Faganism, 
which constantly charged Christianity with receiving 
the lowest and most depraved of mankind among its 



* It !• remarkiiMe in rU die pro- 
gluiuBtiona imd documeoto whiuh 
Eunbins asugni to Caiitliuitioe, booig 
rrtD -wiiUea bjr hi> awn hud, how 
almost eicluiively he dwells dd thia 
worldly ■uperiority of the God ndared 



b<r the Chtietiima over tbooe of the 
Haithen, and the viiible temporal nd- 
vantagfs which attend on the worship 
of Chriattalty. His own Tietoiy and 
the (JiaisKn of his fliflnis sre his 
concliuive evidenced of ChrutiimitT. 



328 REMORSE OF C0N8TANTINE. 

[iroselytes, Bhould affect to assume the tone of si 
moral dignity, to compare its more imcompromisiiig 
moral austerity with the easier terms on which Chris- 
tianity appeared to receive the repentant siimer. In 
the bitterness of wonnded pride and interest at the loss 
of an imperial worshipper, it would revenge itself by 
ascribing liis chaoge exclusively to the worst hour of 
Ins life, and to the least exalted motive. It is a greater 
difttculty, that, anhsequent to this period, the mind of 
C'onstantine appears to have relapsed in some degree to 
its imperfectly unpaganised Christianity. His conduct 
became ambiguous as before, floating between a decided 
bias in favour of Christianity, and an apparent design 
to harmonise with it some of the lesa offensive parts of 
Heathenism. Yet it is by no means beyond the 
common inconsistency of human nature, that, with the 
garb and uttitade, Conetantine should throw off the 
submission of a penitent. His mind, released from its 
burthen, might resume its ancient vigour, and assert its 
haughty superiority over the religious, as welt as over 
the civil allegiance of his subjects. A new object of 
ambitioa was dawning on his mind ; a new and absorb- 
ing impulse was given to all his thoughts — the founda- 
tion of the second Rome, the new imperial city on the 
Bosphorus, 

Nor was this sole and engrossing object altogether 
unconnected with the sentiments which arose out of 
this dark transaction. Borne had become hateful to 
Constantino ; for, whether on this point identifying her^ 
self with the Bagan feeling, and taunting the crime of 
the Christian with partial acrimony, or pre-surmising 
the design of Constaiitine to reduce her to the second 
city of the empire. Home assumed the imwonted libertt 
of insulting the Emperor. The pasquinade which coi 



Ciup. n. INSOLENCE OF THE POPULACE. 329 

pared his days to those of Nero was affixed to the gates 
of the palace ; and so galling was the insolence of the 
populace, that the Emperor is reported to have con* 
suited his brothers on the expediency of calling out his 
guards for a general massacre. Milder councils pre- 
vailed ; and Constantine took the more tardy, but more 
deep-felt, revenge of transferring the seat of empire 
from the banks of the Tiber to the shores of the 
Busphoroa* 



FOCMDATION OF CONSTANTINOPLE 



CHAPTER III. 



Fonndation of ConetRntinople. 

The fonudation of Constantinople marks one i 
Foimnuun great periods of change in the annals of the 
Dopie world. Both its immediate " and its remoter 

connexion with the history of Christianity, are among 
those results which contributed to its influence on the 
destinies of mankind. The removal of the seat of 
empire irom Kome might, indeed, at first appear to 
strengthen the decaying cause of Paganism. The 
senate became the sanctuary, the aristocracy of Kome, in 
general, the unshaken adherents of the ancient religion. 
But its more remote and eventual consequences were 
favourable to the couaolidation and energy of the Chris- 
tian power in the AVest. The absence of a secular com- 
petitor allowed the Papal authority to grow up and to 
develope its secret strength. By the side of the im- 
perial power, perpetually contrasted with the pomp 
and majesty of the throne, constantly repressed in his 
glow but steady advancement to supremacy or obliged 
to contest every point with a domestic antagonist, the 
Pope would hardly have gained more political import- 
ance than the Patriarch of Constantinople. The extinc- 
tion of the Western empire, which indeed had long held 



■ Conrtuitiius stitei the property I so snyi Libaniu! 
■ome of tht tsmples, for the upensc Tijt xari 

milding ConEtBnlJnDple, but did iitlrTiftr 

change tbt eatobliilHd wonhipj | 



Chap. III. FATOUHABLE TO uhRISTJANITT. 331 

its court in Milan or Eavennft rather than in the ancient 
capital, ite revival only heyond the Alps, left all the 
awe which attached to the old lloman name, or which 
followed the posBeasion of the imperial city, to gather 
round the tiara of the Pontiff, In any other city the 
Pope would in vain have asaerted his descent from 
St Peter; the long habit of connecting together the 
name of Rome with supreme dominion, silently co- 
operated in establishing the spiritual despotism of the 
Papal See. 

Even in ita more immediate influence, the rise of 
Constantinople was favourable to the progress lavounbieta 
of Christianity. Itremoved the seat of govern- ctri.«aniij.. 
meut from the presence of those awful temples to which 
ages of glory had attached an inalienable sanctity, and 
with which the piety of all the greater days of the Re- 
public had associated the supreme dominion and the 
majesty of Rome. It broke the last link which combined 
tlie pontifical and the imperial character. The Emperor 
of Constantinople, even if he had remained a Pagan, 
would have lost that power which was obtained over 
men's minds by his appearing in the chief place in all 
the religious pomps and processions, some of which were 
as old as Rome itaelf. The senate, and even tlie people, 
might be transferred to the new city; the deities of 
Some clung to their native home, and would have 
refused to abandon their ancient seats of honour and 
worship. 

Constantinople arose, if not a Christian, certainly not 
a Pagan city. The new capital of the world canunu. 
had no ancient deities, whose worship was in- cSleiiin 
separably connected mth her more majestic ""'■ 
buildings and solemn customs. The temples of old Byzan- 
tium had fallen with the rest of the Dublic edifii'.es. when 



BUILDING OP THE CITY. 



tOKll^^^ 



Severus, in liia vengeance, razed tlie rebellions city to 
the gronnd. Byzantium had resumed BufEicient strength 
and importance to resist & siege by Constantine himself 
in the eorher part of his reign ; and some temples had 
reappeared during the reconstruction of the city.'' The 
fanes of the Sun, of the Moon, and of Aphrodite, were 
permitted to stand in the Acropolia, though deprived of 
their revenues/ That of Castor and Pollui formed part 
of the Hippodrome, and the statues of those deitiea wIi^^^h 
presided over the games stood undisturbed till the reign-^l 
of Theodoaius the Younger.*' 

Once determined to found a rival Rome on the shores 
Baiidingaf of the Bosphorus, the ambition of Constantine 
[teciw- was absorbed by this great object. No expense 
was spared to raise a city worthy of the seat of empire—^ 
no art or influence to collect inhabitants worthy of sm " 
a city. Policy forbade any measure which would alienate" 
the minds of any class or order who might add to the 
splendour or Bwell the population of Byzantium, and 
policy was the ruling principle of Constantine in the 
conduct of the whole transaction. It was the Emperor 
whose pride was now pledged to the accomplishment of 
his scheme with that magnificence which became the 
second founder of the empire, rather than the exclusive^ 
patron of one religious division of his subjects. Ci 
stantinople was not only to bear the name, it was 
wear an exact resemblance of the elder Rome. The^ 
habitations of men, and the public buildings for businesH,j 



the 
jive C 

I toS 

rhsS 

esB,S 



k There is a long list of these tem- I Paschal Chroiiicle, tcltrrad to by V. 
pl« in V, HiuuniBr's Constantinopel Hammer, ujt nothiag of thdr con- 
uod die BofporUB, i. p. 1S9, jic. j renioa into churchra Ij Ci 
Manj of them are mined in Gjlliut, j ■ Mnlala, 
hot it don not tean deir at t ' ' 
period tbcy aoied to eiiib 



BUILDING OF THE CITY. 



333 



for convenience, for amusement, or for eplendoor, de- 
manded the first care of the founder. The imperial 
palace arose, in its dimensions and magnificence equal 
to that in the older city. The skill of the architect waa 
lavished on the patrician mansions, which were so faith- 
fully to represent to the nohlee, who obeyed the imperial 
invitation, the dwellings of their ancestors in the ancient 
Capitol, that their wonderuig eyes could scarcely believe 
their removal ; their Penates might seem to have fol- 
lowed them.* The senate-house, the Augusteum, waa 
prepared for their counsels. For the mass of the people, 
markets and fountains and aqueducts, theatres and hip- 
podromes, porticoes, basilicie, and forums, rose with the 
rapidity of enchantment One class of buildings alone 
was wanting. If some temples were allowed to stand, it 
is clear that no new sacred edifices were erected to excite 
and gratity the religious feelinge of the Pagan party, 
and the building of the few churches which are ascribed 
to the pious munificence of Cortstantine, seems slowly 
to have followed the extraordinary celerity with which 
the city was crowded with civil edifices.' A century 
after — a century during which Christianity had been 



itreipi. 



i 



* Sraamen. ii. 3. Id the u 
bowtva, TheiaiBllui Bilmiti 
luetaflce of Ihe lenstors to remove : 

liqS'irriow Sia^iptir. Oral. Prolrep, 
p. 57. 

' or the churchea bnilt bj Cdd- 
■tBDtme, one waa iloliaited to S, 
Sophia <tbi! >Dpreiiie WiidDin), the 
otJier to Eirene, Petice: a philosophic 
Pagan might have admitted the pro- 
prietj of dedicating templfd to «ich 
of Ihofe nbstmct miiaet. The conie- 



etatlag t* individuul uiuti iraa of a 
later period. Soi. li. 3. The ancient 
Temple of Penes, which aflerwardi 
formed part of the Simta Sophia, vraf 
appropHfltiilf tmniforiDed into a Chris- 
tlao church. The Church of the 
Twelve Apoatlu appeara, fnJm Euw- 
bins (Vil. Const, ir, 68), to hjie 
been built in the last year of Conttan- 
tine'ii reign and of hi> life, aa a burial 
place for himwlr sad hta familj, 
Sutomtn, indeei, saya that Conatan- 
tine emliellishcd (he city woAAoIt iciil 
t^fyltrroit tittrrfptots offrtuT. 



r 



334 CEEEMOSUL OF THE FOUNDATION". Booc^| 

recognised as the religion of the empire— the metropolis 
contained only fourteen churches, one for each of its 
wards or divisions. Yet Constantine hy no means neg- 
lected those measures which might connect the new city 
with the religious feeliuga of mankind. Heaven inspired, 
commanded, sanctified the foundation of the second 
Eome. The ancient ritual of Roman Paganism con- 
tained a solemn ceremony, which dedicated a new city 
to the protection of the Deity. 

An imperial edict arkuounced to the world that Con- 
cemnoniEi stantine, by the command of God, had founded 
auim. the eternal city.^ When the Emperor walked, 
with a spear in hia hand, in the front of the stately 
procession which was to trace the boundaries of Con- 
stantinople, the attendants followed in wonder hia still 
advancing footsteps, which seemed as if they never 
would reach the appointed limit. Ooe of them, at 
length, humbly inquired how much farther he proposed 
to advance. " When he that goes before me," replied 
the Emperor, " shall stop." But, however the Deity 
might have intimated his injunctions t-o commence the 
work, or whatever the nature of the invisible guide which, 
as he declared, tlius directed hia steps, this vague appeal 
to the Deity would impress with the same respect all 
his subjects, and by its impart.ial ambiguity offend none. 
In earlier times the Pagans would have bowed down in 
homage before this manifestation of the nameless tutelar 
deity of the new city ; at the present period they hat! 
become familiarised, as it were, with the concentration 
of Olympus into one Supreme Being, i" The Chrititians 



* On the old eereiron)- ai fonnding I Zoiiniuii f 
atj, me Ifartnng, Rdigiun der langungE 
imer, i. lU. Hesth^n : 

' The ((pretaion of the Psgin | Bpax^', ' 



by Om 

1 



Cb&f. m. 



SPLENDOUR OF THE CITY. 



would of coui-se assert the exclusive right of the one tnio 
God to this appellation, and attribute to his inspiration 
and guidance every important act of the Christian Em- 
peror.' 

But if splendid temples were not erected to the de- 
caying deities of Paganism, their images were set up, 
naingled indeed with other noble works of art, in all the 
public places of Constantinople. If the inhabitants were 
not encouraged, at least they were not forbidden, to pay 
divine honours to the immortal sculptures of Phidias 
and Praxiteles, which were brought from all quarters to 
adorn the squares and baths of Byzantium. The whole 
Koman world contributed to the splendour of Constanti- 
nople. The tutelar deities of all the cities of Greece 
(their influence of course much enfeebled by their re- 
moval from their local sanctuaries) were assembled: 
the Minerva of Lyndua, the Cybele of Mount Dindymus 
(which was said to have been placed there by the Argo- 
nauts), the Muses of Helicon, the Amphitrite of Rhodes, 
the Pan conaeci-ated by united Greece after the defeat 
of the Persians, the Delphic Tripod. The Dioscuri 
overlooked the Hippodrome. At each end of the prin- 
cipal forum were two shrines, one of which held the 
statue of Cybele, but deprived of her lions and her 
hands, from the attitude of command distorted into that 
of a Bupphant for the welfare of the city : in the otlier 
was tlie Fortune of Byzantium.*^ To some part of the 



He ii ipeikii^ of u oracle, in vhicb 
Uie Pn^na pnttj dncavered a predic- 
tion nf thp future ghrj of BjmDtiani. 
One letter less woald nuke it tfae len- 
teiice of ■ Christian ajipealing to [ii-o- 
pheey. 

' At ■ later pi'rloJ the Virgin Mnvv 



obtfuned the hanonr of baving intfxred 
the foundation of Constantinople, of 
IV hich she became the tn Wiarjf gnantiin, 
I had sJmittt written. Deity. 

* Euaeb. Vit, Const, lil. 54. Stto- 
meu, ii. 5. CoJiniiB, de Oiig. C. f. 
30-Ca. to B™u. i. 3D. 



r 



336 DEDICATION OF THE CITY. 

Christian community thie might appear to be leadin 
as it were, the gods of Paganism in triumph ; the Pa£ 
were shocked on their part by their violent removal from 
their native fanes, and their wanton mutilation. Yet 
the Christianity of that age, in full possession of the 
mind of Constantine, would sternly have interdicted the 
decoration of a Christian city with these idols ; the work- 
manship of Phidias or of Lysippus would have found no 
favour, when lavished on images of the Deemoua ( 
Paganism, 

The ceremonial of the dedication of the city" 
attended by still more dubious circumstances. After i 
most splendid exhibition of chariot games in the Hip( 
podrome, the Emperor moved in a magnificent < 
through the most public part of the city, encircled 1 
all his guards in the attire of a religious ceremonial & 
leftring torches m their hands. The Emperor hin 
held a golden statue of the Fortune of the city in 1 
hands. An imperial edict enacted the annual celebia 
tion of this rite. On the birthday of the city the gildec 
statue of himself, thus bearing the same golden i 
of Fortune, was annually to he led throi^h the Hippt 
drome to the foot of the imperial throne, and to reoeiff 
the adoration of the reigning Emperor. The lingerin 
attachment of Constantine to the favourite auperstitioa 
of his earlier days, may he traced on still better authority 



oil 


i pereaade his iradera 




■8 were Bet up in th. 




eidle the general 




lus ndniits with Utr 


m 


were mutilaled fhnn 




In the indent reli- 


Co 


mpve Socr. Ec. Hut. 


<x 


me Udm are worth 



a bj Chria 



reading), the descriptiou 

of ihe s 
gjmniulum of Zeuiippiu. Deiphabi 

fine. Thire an bIhi. in 

BBsemblage, Venn* (Cfpris), 

~9SBr, Plato, Herculo, aud 

nlholog. Palat. i. 37. 

" Piuchal Chronicle, p 521 



CBiP. 111. STATUE OF CONSTANTINE. 33? 

The Grecian worahip of Apollo had been exalted into 
the Oriental veneration of the Sun, as the visible repre- 
sentative of the Deity; and of all the statues which 
were introduced from different quarters, none wei'e 
received with greater honour than those of Apoilo. In 
one part of the city stood the Pythian, in the other the 
Bminthian deity." The Delphic Tripod, which, accord- 
ing to Zosimus, contained an image of the god, stood 
apon the column of tlie three twisted serpents, supposed 
to represent the mythic Python. But on a still loftier, 
the famous pillar of porphyry, stood an image eutoeor 
in which (if we are to credit modern authority, *^™"""'"'- 
and the more modern our authority, the less Kbely is it 
to have invented so singular a statement) Constantiae 
dared to mingle together the attributes of the Bun, of 
Christ, and of himself." According to one tradition, this 
pillar was based, m it were, on another superBtition. 
The venerable Palladium itself, surreptitiously conveyed 
from Rome, was buried beneath it, and thus transferred 
the eternal destiny of the old to the new capital. The 
pillar, formed of marble and of porphyry, rose to the 
height of 120 feet. The colossal image on the top was 
that of Apollo, either from Phrygia or from Athens. 
But the head of Constantino had been substituted for 
that of the god. The sceptre proclaimed the dominion 
of the world, and it held in its hand the globe, em- 
blematic of universal empire. Around the head, instead 
of rays, were fixed the nails of the true cross. Is this 
Paganism approximating to Christianity, or Christianity 
degenerating into Paganism? Thus Constantine, as 

i ' ■ Eunb. Vit. ConM. ii<. M. I potus, i. 162- Fhilwtcrglus »)'> 

• Th* nuUur of the Aatiq. Cen- Uiet Ibe Christiuu wanhipped thl> 
(tautinap. spud Bandun. See Voa Image, ii. IT. 
Bomnier, ConaUutinapd uuil tliti Bos- | 

VOL. II. '■- 



336 PROGRESS OF CHfilSTIASlTY. Boos MP 

fotmder of the new capital, migbt appear to some atill 
to maintain the impartial dignity of Empei-or of the 
world, presiding with serene indifference over the various 
nations, orders, and religious divisions which peopled his 
dominions ; admitting to the privileges and advantages 
of citizens in the new Rome all who were tempted to 
make their dwelling arotind her seat of empire. 

Yet, even diiring the reign of Consfantine, no doubt, 
Progres, or the triumphant progress of Christianity tended 
Christianity, ^ efface or to obscure these lingering vestiges 
of the ancient religion. If here and there remained s 
ehrine or temple belonging to Polytheism, built in pro- 
portion to the narrow circuit and moderate population 
of old Byzantium, the Chi-istian churches, though far 
from numerous, were gradually rising, in their dimen- 
sions more suited to the magnilicence and populousness 
of tbe new city, and in foim proclaiming the dominant. 
faith of Constantinople. The Christians were most 
likely to crowd into a new city ; probably their main 
strength still lay in the mercantile part of the com- 
munity : interest and rehgion would combine in urging 
them to settle in this promising emporium of trade, 
where their religion, if it did not reign alone and ex- 
clusive, yet maintained an evident superiority over its 
decaying rival. Those of tlie old aristocracy who were 
inclined to Christianity, would be much more loosely 
attached to their Koman residences, and would be most 
inclined to obey the invitation of the Emperor, while 
the Ifti^e class of the indifferent would follow at the 
same time the religious and political bias of the sove- 
reign. Where the attachment to the old religion was 
BO slight and feeble, it was a trifling sacrifice to ambition 
or intflrest to embrace the new; particularly whei« 
there was no splendid ceremonial, no connexion of tl 



I 



THE AMPHITHEATRE. 339 

priestly office witli tlie higher dignity of the 8ta(«; 
nothing, in short, which could enlist either old reve- 
rential feelings, or the imagination, in the cause of 
Polytheism. The sacred treasures, transferred from 
the Pagan temples to the Christian city, sank more and 
more into national monuments, or curious remains of 
antiquity; their religions significance was gradually 
forgotten ; they became, in the natural process of 
things, a mere collection of works of art. 

In other respects Constantinople was not a Roman 
city. Anamphitheatre, built on the restoration ■n.eAnjpbi. 
of the city after the siege of Severus, was per- "«*'"■ 
mitted to remain, but it was restricted to exhibitions of 
wild beasts ; the first Christian city was never disgraced 
by the bloody spectacle of gladiators.'' There were 
theatres indeed, but it may be doubted whether the 
noble religious drama of Greece ever obtained popularity 
in Constantinople. The chariot race was the amuse- 
ment which absorbed all others ; and to this, at first, as 
it waa not necessarily connected with the Pagan worship, 
Christianity might be more indulgent How this taste 
grew into a passion, and this passion into a frenzy, the 
later annals of Constantinople bear melancholy witness. 
Beset with powerful enemies without, oppressed by a 
tyrannona government within, the people of Constan- 
tinople thought of nothing but the colour of their faction 
in the Hippodrome, and these more engrossing and 



■> An edict of CouitiuiUiie (Cod. 


nils w«n to be sent to tlie miii 


Theod, IV. 12), if it did EM oJlogether 


But it would Kem th&t capliv 




taken in war might ibll be eiposed 


«riolBl th*m to p«ttouhr awiiboik. 




"Ci-nenln specUculii in olio d.-ili, et 


eihibi lions ruislid same time lung 



340 ANCIENT TEMPLES. 

maddening contentions even silenced the animosity of 
religious dispute. 

During the foundation of Constantinople, the iEtuperot 
might appear to the Christians to have relapsed ftom 
the head of the Christian division of his subjects, into 
the common sovereign of the Koman world. In this 
respect, his conduct did not ratify the promise of his 
earlier acts in the East He had not only restored 
Christianity, depressed first by the cruelties of Muximin, 
and al'terwarda by the violence of Licinina, but in many 
eases he had lent hia countenance, or his more active 
assistance, to the rebuilding tlieir churches on a more 
imposing plan. Yet, to all outward appearance, the 
world was still Pagan : every city seemed still to repose 
under the tutelary gods of the ancient religion ; every- 
Andait where the temples rose above the buildings of 
ianpiiB. j^gjj . jf jjgpp g^(j iijgjg ^ Chriatian churci, in 
its magnitude, or iu the splendour of its architecture, 
might compete with the solid and elegant fanes of an- 
tiquity, the Christians had neither ventured to expel 
them from their place of honour, or to appropriate tst 
their own use those which were falling into neglect 
decay. As yet there had been no invasion but on 
opinions and moral iufluence of Polytheism. 

The temples, indeed, of Pagan worehip, though sub- 
sequently, in some instances, converted to Christian 
uses, were not altogether suited to the ceremonial of 
Christianity." Tlie Christians might look on their 
stateliest building with jealousy — hardly witJi envy. 
Whether raised on the huge substructures, and in the 



1 Compuv an BicoUmt 
Didtna of lighting the anciout 



'4 




ANCIENT TEMPLES. 



masaeB of the older Aaiatic atyle, as at B&albec, 
or the original Temple at Jerusaiem ; whether built on 
the principles of Grecian art, when the siici'ist of vaultr 
iog over a vast buildiag seems to have been unknown ; 
or, after the general introduction of the arch by tb» 
Komans had allowed the roof to spread out to lunpler 
extent, — still the actual enclosed temple was rarely of 
great dimensions/ The largest among the Greeks 
were hyptethral, open to the sky/ If we judge from 
the temples crowded together about the Forum, those 
in Kome contributed to the splendour of the city rather 
by their number than by their size. The rites of Poly- 
tlieism, in fact, collected together their vast assemblages, 
rather as spectators than as worshippers.' The altar 
itself, in general, stood in the open air, in the court 
before the temple, where the smoke might find free 
vent, and riae in its grateful odour to the heavenly 
dwelling of the gods. The body of the worsbippera, 
therefore, stood in the courts, or the surrounding por- 
ticoes. 'Ihey might approach individually, and make 
their separate libation or offering, and then retire to a 
convenient distance, where they might watch the move- 
ments of the ministering priest, receive his announce- 
ment of the favourable or sinister signs discovered in 
the victim, or listen to the hymn, which was the only 
usual form of adoration or prayer. However Chris- 



' M. Quatmnfire de Quiocj giva 

Juno Bt Agrigentum, ll6(Puis) ferCj 
Conoord,120;F«stu[n. llOjThewOB, 
100; Jnpiteria OlTtnpIm or UinerVB 
at Atlwns, 220-S30 ; Jopiler at 
AgrigeBtum, 323 ; Sdlnna, S-iU ; 
Epbamii, 350 ; ApoUa Dmdymiu at 
UilHua, 360. p. 195. 



• The real hypffithral lomplrt wpra 
to pnrticnlar diviniliea : Jupiter Ful- 
garntor, Ccelum, Sol, Luiu. 

' Eleudi, the scene of the mywerifs, 
of all the ancient timplee hsc! the 
largest DBTB jit I 






Oiirp 



I Hiaaeai Svrifiir 



'0;,X«>. 



5*2 



BASIUCAS. 



laanity might admit g;radations in its several claaees of 
worshippers, and assign ita separate station according 
to the sei, or the degree of advancement in the religions 
initiation ; however the penitents might be forbidden, 
until reconciled witli the Church, or the catechumens 
before they were initiated into the community, to pene- 
trate beyond the outer portico, or the first inner divi- 
sion in the church ; yet the great mass of a Christian 
congregation must be received within the walls of the 
building ; and the service consisting not merely in cere- 
monies performed by the priesthood, but in prayers, to 
which all present were expected to respond, and in oral 
instruction, the actual edifice therefore required more 
ample dimensions. 

In many towns there was another public building, the 
BasUica, or Hall of Justice," singularly adapted 
for the Christian worship. This was a large 
chamber, of an oblong form, with a plain flat exterior weJli J 
Tlie pillars, which in the temples were without, stooAfl 
witbin the basilica ; and the porch, or that which in the 
temple was an outward portico, was contained within the 
basilica. This hall was thus divided by two rows of 
columns into a central avenue, with two side aisles. The 
outward wall was easily pierced for windows, without 
damaging the symmetry or order of the architecture. In 
the one the male, in the other the female, appellants to 
justice waited their turn.* The three longitudinal avenues 



■ Le Builique fut I'^ilice des 
Dociens, qui convint K U c^lebisiioD 
iie sea myaliU'eB. La vaste caprtdtif 
df ^n interlaor. Lea dipuionA de am 
plan, les grandei ouverlnres, qui in- 
trodntnioit it toutoi furti li lumi^n 
, U tribiuul qui 



derint 1b plan d» celAraDB, tit du 
chsar, tout se troara en rapport area 
tea piBtiqiKs da DOtima Gulte. Q. d* 
Quinoy, p. 173. See Hope on Ardri- 
tecture, p. 87. 

" Acconiing wBingham (tviii. o. 3\ 
Ihe women occupied gallctta in « ~ '' 



Wei's crossed by one in a ti-ansverse direction, elevated 
a few steps, and occupied by the advocates, notaries, 
and otliers employed in the public buBinesa. At the 
larther end, opposite to the central avenue, the building 
swelled out into a semicircular recess, with a ceiling 
rounded o£f; it was called absia in the Greek, and in 
liatin tribunal. Here Bat the magistrate with his asses- 
1, and hence courts of justice were caDed tribunals. 
The arrangement of this building coincided with re- 
markable propriety with the distribution of a Christian 
congregation.*' The sexes retained their separate places 
in the aisles ; the central avenue became the nave, so 
called from the fanciful analogy of the church to the 
ship of St. Peter. The transept, the B^^to, or chores, 
was occupied by the inferior clergy and the singers.' 
The bishop took the throne of the magistrate, and tlie 
superior dei^y ranged ou each side on the seata of the 



Before the throne of the bishop, either within or on 
the verge of the receaa, stood the altar. This was 
divided from the nave by the caucelli, or rails, from 
whence hung curtains, which, during the celebration of 
the communion, separated the participants from the 
rest of the congregation. 

As these buildings were numerous, and attached to 
every imperial residence, they might be bestowed at 
once on the Christians, without either interfering witli 
the course of justice, or bringing the rehgious feehuga 
of the hostile parties into collision.' Two, the Sessoriau 

^ile above the mta. This sort of I oclngDonl form ; Bome in that of n 
*epuxtion maj h»e beoi borroiTed cross. See Binghani, 1, Tili. c 3. 
•from Ihe Bjnagogue ; profcablj- tho ■ Apost. Coaa. I. ii, «. 57. 
jrattice was not uniform. | • Tliei-e wtre sightwn at Kome : 



[ 



144 EELATIVE POSITION OF Book 10, 

and the Lateran, were granted to the Boman ChnBtians 
by Constantine. And the basilica appeare to have been 
the usual form of building in the West, though, besides 
the porch, connected with, or rather included within, 
the buildiiifr, which became the Narthex, and was occu- 
pied by the ratechnmens and the penitents, and in 
which stood the piscina, or font of baptism — there was 
in general an outer open court, surrounded with colon- 
nades. This, as we have seen in the description of the 
church at Tyre, was general in the East, wliere the 
churches retained probably more of the templar form ; 
while in Constantinople, where they were buildings 
raised from the ground, Constantme appears to have 
followed the form of the basilica. 

By the consecration of these basilicas to the purposcB 
of Christian worsliip, and the gradual erection of large 
fifMn churches in many of the Eastern cities, Chris- 
STriaiianiiy tiftuity began to assume an outward form and 
t»ni. dignity commensurate with its secret moral 

influence. In imposing magnitude, if not in the grace 
and magniiieence of its architecture, it rivalled the 
temples of antiquity. But as yet it had neither the 
power, nor, probably, the inclination, to array itself in 
the spoils of Paganism, Ita aggression was still rather 
that of fair competition than of hostile destniction. It 
was content to behold the silent courts of the Pagan 
fanes untrodden hut by a few casual worshippers ; altars 
without victims ; thin wreaths of smoke rising where 
the air used to be clouded with the reek of liecatombs ; 



^hal^Bfl, or places for ^ento^l bufii- ^ze. Oa« is destribed hj the joimger 

the Kommi basilicffi Pliny, in which 180 judges were sailed, 

IS, the Basil ics Ar^n- with a vast multitude of ad va:ate3 ami 

, i. p. 8. BuditoTn. Plin. Epist. i 




J 



CruF III. CHEISTI-iNITY AND PAGANISM. 345 

the prieaihood murmuring in bitter envy at tlie throngs 
which passed by the porticoes of their temples towards 
the Christian church. The direct interference with the 
freedom of Pagan woi'ship seemB to have betsn confined 
to the suppression of those Eastern rites which were 
ofTensive to public morals. Some of the Syrian templea 
retained the obscene ceremonial of the older Nature- 
worship. Religious prostitution, and other monstrous 
enormities, appeared under the form of divine adora: 
tion. The same rites which had endangered the fidelity 
of the ancient Israelites shocked the severe purity of 
the Christians. A temple in Syria of the Tompia 
female principle of generation, which the later "pp™«* 
Greeks identified with their Aphrodite, was defiled by 
these unspeakable pollutions; it was levelled to the 
ground by the Emperor's command ; the recesses of the 
eacred grove laid open to the day, and ihe ritoe inter- 
dicted,'' A temple of jEsculapiiis at Mgs, in Cilicia, 
fell under the same proscription. The miraculous 
cures, pretended to be wrought in this temple, where 
the suppliants passed the night, appear to have excited 
the jealousy of the Christians; and this was, perhaps, 
tiie first overt act of hostility against the established 
paganism." In many other places the frauds of the 
priesthood were detected by the zealous incredulity of 
the Christians; and Polytheism, feebly defended by its 
own party, at least left to its fate by the Government, 
assailed on all quarters by an active and persevering 
enemy, endured affront, exposure, neglect, if not with 
the dignified patience of martyrdom, with the sullen 
equanimity of indifference. 

Palestine itself, and ite capital, Jerusalem, was an 



346 CHHISTLAJflTT 4T JEEUSALEM. Bom liL 

open province, of which Christianity took entire and 
almost undisputed possession. Paganism, in the adja- 
cent regions, had built some of its most splendid temples; 
4he later Roman architecture at Gerasa, at Petra, and 
at Baalhcc, appears built on the massive and enormous 
foundations of the older native structures. But in Pa- 
lestine Proper it had made no strong settlement. 
Temples had been raised by Hadrian, in hia new city, 
on the site of Jerusalem. One dedicated to Aphrodite 
occupied the spot which Christian tradition or later in- 
vention asserted to be the sepulchre of Clirist." The 
cbriitianiiy proliibition issued by Hadrian against the od- 
sutrnHiiHa. jT^iggion of ^jje Jews into the Holy City, doubt- 
less was no longer enforced; but, though not forcibly 
depressed by public authority, Judaism itself waned, in 
its own native territory, before the ascendancy of CIuib- 
tianity. 

It was in Palestine that the change which had been 
slowly working into Christianity itself, began to assume 
a more definite and apparent form. The religion re- 
issued as it were from its cradle, in a character, if 
foreign to its original simplicity, singularly adapted to 
achieve and maintain its triumph over the human 
mind. It no longer confined itself to its purer moral 
influence; it was no more a simple, spiritual faith, 
despising all those accessories which captivate the 
senses, and feed the imagination with new excitement. 
It no longer disdained the local sanctuary, nor stood 
independent of those associations with place, which be- 
seemed an universal and spiritual religion. It began to 



' This temple wu improUibly sai I Oadriac 
hjTe been built OD Ihb spot by I rebellwi 
lulrian to insult the ChriiitiiiDs ; but I tisoi. 



f 



CliAP. HI, THE HOLT SBFCLCHEE. 347 

have its hero-worahip, its mythology ; it began to crowd 
the mind with images of a secondary degree of sanctity, 
but which enthralled and kept in captivity those who 
were not ripe for the pure moral conception of the 
Deity, and the impersonation of the Godhead in Jesus 

. Christ It was, as might not unreasonably be antici- 
pated, a female, the Empress Helena, the mother of 
Conatantine, who gave, as it were, this new colouring to 
Christian devotion. In Palestine, indeed, where her 
pioufi activity was chiefly employed, it was the memory 
of the Redeemer himself which hallowed the scenes of 
his life and death to the imagination of the believer. 
Splendid churches arose over the place of his birth at 
Bethlehem ; that of his burial, near the supposed 
Calvary ; that of his ascension, on the Mount of Olives, 
So far the most spiritual piety could not hesitate to 
proceed ; to such natural and iireaistible claims upon its 
TeneratioQ no Christian heart could refuse to yield. 
The cemeteries of their brethren had, from the com- 
mencement of Christianity, exercised a strong influence 
over the imagination. They had frequently, in times of 

_ trial, been the only places of religious assemblage, 
When hallowed to the feelings by the remains of 
friends, of bishops, of martyrs, it was impossible to 
approach them without the profonndeKt reverence ; and 
the transition from reverence to veneration — to adora- 
tion — was too easy and imperceptible to awaken the 
jealousy of that exclusive devotion due to God and the 
Kedeeraer. The sanctity of the place where the Re- 
deemer was supposed to have been laid in the sepulchre, 
was atill more naturally and intimately associated with 
the purest sentiments of devotion. 

But the next step, the discovery of the true cross, was 
more important. It materialised, at once, the spiritual 



Hi 



CUUECHES BUILT IN PALESTINE. 



worship of Chriatianity. It was reported tlirutighont 
wondering Christendom, that tradition, or a vieioo, 
having revealed the place of the Holy Sepulchre, the 
fane of Venua had been thrown down by the Imperial 
command, excavations had been made, the Holy Sepul- 
chre had come to light, and with the Sepulchre three 
crosses, with the inscription originally written by Pilate 
iu three languages over that of Jesus. As it was 
doubtful to wliich of the crosses the tablet with the in- 
scription belonged, a miracle decided to the perplexed 
believers the claims of the genuine cross.' The precions 
treasure was divided ; part, enshrined in a silver caacv' 
remained at Jerusalem, from whence pilgrims constanr ~ 
bore fragments of the atill vegetating wood to tlie W« 
till enough was accumulated iu the different churches to 
build a ship of war. Part was sent to Constantinople : 
the nails of the passion of Clirist were turned into a bit 
for the war-horse of the Emperor, or, according to 
another account, represented the rays of the sun around 
the head of bis statue. 

A magnificent church, called at first the Church of the 
ohurcb« Eesurrection (Anastasis), afterwards that of the 
piirMUnc Holy Sepulchre, rose on tlie sacred spot hal- 
lowed by this discovery, in wliich from that time a 
large part of the Christian world has addressed its im- 
questioning orisons. It stood in a large open court, 
with porticoes on each side, with the usual porch, nave^ 






• 'Hh aidtcd itala of tbg Chrirtiu 
nund, and th« tendencjr to this mste- 
rialisatioa ot Cbriiliiinlt;, ma; be 
ntinuteil by the undoubting cialulity 
with which thof enlertBiaed th« im- 
probable noUon that Ihc crosses ven 
bulled »ith our Sxriour, not colj 



saSenl b 



f the buriitl i 



Gospels, how siogular a ehange Lo 
that of the discnici-y of the cross in 
the iEcl«iastlcal hittoriaui ! SDGnii«,i. 
17. Swtoiaeii, Li. t. TheoJoi-tC. i. ttL 



Chap. HI. CHURCHES BUILT JN PALESTINE. 



349 



and choir. The nave was inlaid with precious marbles ; 
and the roof, overlaid with gold, showered down a flood 
of light over the whole building ; the roofs of the aisles 
were Ukewise overlaid with gold. At the farther end 
arose a dome supported by twelve pillars, in commemo- 
ration of the Twelve Apostles; the capitals of these 
were silver vases. Within the church was another 
court, at the extremity of which stood the Chapel of the 
Holy Sepulchre, lavishly adorned with gold and precious 
stones, as it were to perpetuate the angelic glory which 
streamed forth on the day of the Resurrection.' 

Another sacred place was pnrified by the command of 
Constantino, and dedicated to Christian worship. Near 
Hebron* there was the celebrated oak or terebinth tree of 
Mamre, which tradition pointed out as the spot where 
the angels appeared to Abraham. It is singular that 
the Heathen are said to liave celebrated religious rites 
at this place, and to have worshipped the celestial 
visitants of Abraham. It was likewise, as usual in the 
East, a celebrated emporium of commerce. The wor- 
ship may have been like that at the Caaba of Mecca 
before liie appearance of Mohammed, for the fame of 
Abraham seems to have been preserved among the 
Syrian and Arabian tribes, as well as the Jews. It is 
remarkable that, at a later period, the Jews and Chris- 
tians are said to have met in amicable devotion, and 
offered their common incense and suspended their lightg 
in the church erected over this spot by the Christian 
Emperor.^^ 



' Eiuebiits, Vit. Constant, iii. 29, 
ct seq. ; this seems to be the sense of 
the aatbor. 

f On Hebron, read Dr. Stanley's 
most interesting aoooont of his visit 



to the tomb of Abraham with H JELH. 
the Prinoe of Wales. 

^ Antoninus in Itinerario. Sec 
Heinichen, Note on Enseb. Vit. Conirt 
Ui. 53. 



■ 3S0 



THINlTAUlAJi COSTEOVEKaY. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Trinitarian Controversy. 



But it was as arbiter of religious differences, as pis- 
Triniurtm siding in their solemn councils, that Constaii- 
tnainvenj. jjjjg appeared to the Cliristiaus the avowed 
and ostensible head of their community. Immediat^y 
after his victory over Liciniua, Constantine had found 
the East, no leas than the West, agitated by the dissen- 
sions of his Christian subjects. He hatt hoped to allay 
the flames of the Donatist schism, by the coneenti^ 
and imjiartial authority of the Western Chiirchea, 
more extensive, if as yet less fiercely agitated, contest dift^.l 
turbed the Eastern provinces. Outward peace seemed J 
to be restored only to give place to intesline dissen- V 
sion. I must reaacend the course of Christian History 1 
for sevei-al years, in order to trace in one continQoa9.1l 
narrative the rise and progress of the Trinitarian Cos>.'l 
troversy, Tliis dissension had broken out soon after ' 
Constantiue's subjugation of the East; already, before 
the building of Constantinople, it had obtained full 
possession of the pubhc mind, and the great Council of 
Nicfea, the first real senate of Christendom, had passed 
its solemn decree. The Donatist schism was but a local 
dissension: it raged, indeed, with fatal and implacable 
fury ; but it was almost entirely confined to the liraibs 
of a single province. The Trinitarian controversy was 
the first dissension which rent asunder the whole body 
of the Christiana, aiTayed in almost every part of the f 



Ohap. IV. TEINITAJtlAN CONTHOVEasT. 361 

world two hostile parties in imjjlacable opposition, and, 
at a later period, exercised a powerful political influence 
on the affairs of the world. How singular an illustration 
of tile change already wrought in the mind of man by 
the introduction of Christianity! Questions which, if 
they had arisen in the earlier period of the world, 
would have been limited to a priestly caste — if in 
Greece, would have been confined to the less frequented 
schools of Athens or Alexandria, and might have pro- 
duced some intellectual excitement among the few who 
were conversant with the higher philosophy — now agi- 
tated the populace of great cities, occupied the councils 
of princes, and, at a later period, determined the fata 
of kingdoms and the sovereignty of great part of 
Europe." It appears still more extraordinary, siBCe 
this controversy related to a purely speculative tenet. 
The disputauta of either pmty might possibly have 
asserted the superior tendency of each system to enforce 
the severity of Christian morals, or to excite the ardour 
of Christian piety ; but they appear to have dwelt little, 
if at all, on the practical effects of the conflicting 
opinions. In morals, in manners, in habits, in usages, 
in Church government, in religious ceremonial, there 
was no distinction between the parties which divided 
Cliristendom. The Gnostic sects inculcated a severer 
asceticism, and diflered, in many of their usages, from 
the general body of the Christians. The Donalist 
factions commenced at least with a question of Church 
discipline, and almost grew into a strife for political 
ascendancy. The Arians and Athanasians first divided 
the worid on a pure question of faith. From this 



iftlieVliigolhi 




352 



ORIGIN OF THE CONTROI'EEST. 



period we may date the introduction of rigoroiui ur- 
ticlea of belief, which required the submissive assent of 
the mind tu every word and letter of an established 
creed, and which raised the slightest heresy of opinioo 
into a more fatal offence against God, and a more 
odious crime in the estimation of man, than the woi 
moral delinquency or the moat flagrant deviation fr 
the spirit of Christianity. 

Tlie Trinitarian controversy was the natmut, though 
Ori«inofih8 tardy, growth of the Gnostic opinions; it could 
aatnivtny. gcan>eiy bg avoided when the esquisite di* 
tinctncsB and subtlety of the Greek language 
applied to religious opinions of an Oriental c 
Even the Greek of the New Testament retained somi 
thing of the significant and reverential ' 
Eastern expression. This vagueness, even phito&oj 
cally speaking, may better coarey to the mind th( 
mysterious conceptions of the Deity vfhich are beyt 
the previuce of reason than the anatomical precision 
philosophic Greek. ITie first Christians were content 
worsliip, with undefined fervour, tbe Deity as reveali 
in the Gospel. They assented to, and repeated with 
devout adoration, the words of the Sacred Writings, or 
tliose which had been made use of from the Apostolic 
age ; but they did not decompose them, or, with nice 
aud scrupulous accuracy, appropriate peculiar terms to 
each manifestation of the Godhead. It was the great 
characteristic of tbe Oriental theologies, as described in 
a former chapter, to preserve the primal aud parental 
Deity at the greatest possible distance from the rnato* 
rial creation. This originated in the elementary 
of the irreclaimable evil of matter. In the 
day, the more mtional believer labours under 
stant dread, if not of mater ialisinir, of huraanisinj 







Chap. IT. THE DEITT. 363 

taaiih the Great Supreme. A certain degree of indis- 
tinctness appears inseparable from tliat vaatneas of con- 
ception, wliich ariaes out of the more extended know- 
ledge of the works of the Creator. A more expanding 
and comprehensive philosophy increasea the distance 
between the Omniflc First Cause and the ra^e of man. 
All that defines seems to limit and circumscribe the 
Deity. Yet in thus reverentially repelling consiant 
the Deity into an unapproachable sphere, and mwuibe in- 
investing him, as it were, in a nature abso- dovoni>ii»i 
Intely unimaginable by the mind ; in thus tie n uy. 
secluding him from the degradation of being vulgarised, 
if the expression may be ventured, by profane fami- 
liarity, or circumscribed by the narrowness of the 
human intellect, God is gradually subtilised and subli- 
mated into a being beyond the reach of devotional 
feelinffs, almost saperior to adoration. There is in 
mankind, and in the individual man, on the one hand, 
an intellectual tendency to refine the Deity into a 
mental conception ; and, on the otlier, an instinctive 
counter-tendency to impersonate him into a material, 
and, when the mind is ruder and less inteUectual, a 
mere human being. Among the causes which have 
contributed to the successful promulgation of Christi- 
anity and the maintenance of its influence over the 
mind of man, was the singular beauty and felicity with 
which its theory of the conjunction of the divine and 
human nature, each preserving its separate attril^utes, 
on the one hand, enabled the mind to preserve inviolate 
the pure conception of the Deity, on the other, to ap- 
proximate it, as it were, to human interests and sym- 
pathies. But this is done rather by a process of 
instinctiTe feeling than by strict logical reasoning, 
Even here, there is a perpetual stril'e between the iutel 

VOL. II. 2 ft. 



ibi iSTELLECTUAL AND DEVOTION.iL GmsW^ 

lect, wliich gimrds with jealousy the divine conception 
of the JRedeemer's nature ; and the sentiment, or even 
the pasaion, which bo draws down the general notion to 
its own capacitiea, so approximates and assimilates it to 
itB own ordinary sympatMes, as to absorb the Godhead 
n the human nature. 

The Gnostic systems had universally admitted the 
seclusion of the primal Deity from all intercourse with 
matter; that intercourse had taken place, through 
a derivative and intermediate being, more or less re- 
motely proceeding from the sole fountain of Godhead. 
This, however, waa not the part, of Gnosticism which 
was chiefly obnoxious to the general sentiments of the 
Christian body. Their theories about the malignant 
nature of the Creator; the identification of the God of 
the Jews with this hostile being; the Doeetism which 
asserted the unreality of the Redeemer — these points, 
with their whole system of the origin of the worlds and 
of mankind, excited the most vigorous and active rfr- 
sistance. But when the wilder theories of Gnosticism 
began to die away, or to rank themselves under the 
hostile standard of Manicheism ; when tlieir curions 
eosmogonical notions were dismissed, and the greater 
part of the Christian world began to agree in tlie plain 
doctrines of the eternal supremacy of God ; the birth, 
the death, the resurrection of Christ as the Son of 
God ; the effusion of the Holy Spirit, — questions began 
to arise as to the pecuhar nature and relation between 
the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. In all the systems a 
binary, in most a triple, modification of the Deity waa 
admitted. The Logos, the Divine Word or Reason, 
might differ, in the various schemes, in his relation to 
the parental Divinity and to the universe ; but thei 
was this distinctive and ineffaceable character, that S 



Cbap. IV. CONCEPTION OF THE DEITY. 356 

was the Mediator, the connecting link between the 
unseen and unapproachahle world and that of man, 
This Platoniam, if it may be so called, was universal. 
It differed, indeed, widely in moat systems from fho 
original philosophy of the Athenian sage; it had Rf- 
qnired a more Oriental and imaginative cast. Plato's 
poetry of words had been expanded into tlie poetry 
of conceptions. It may be doubted whether Plato him- 
self impersonated the Logos, the Word or Reason, of 
the Deity ; with him it was rather an attribute of the 
Godhead. In one sense it was the chief of these arche- 
typal ideas, according to which the Creator framed the 
uuiyerse ; in another, the principle of life, motion, an<l 
harmony wliich pervaded all things. This Platonism 
had gradually abijorbed all the more intellectual class ; 
it hovered over, as it were, and gathered under its 
wings all the religions of the world. It had already 
modified Judaism; it had allied itself with the Syrian 
and Mithriac worship of the Sun, the visible Mediatoi', 
the emblem of the Word; it was part of the general 
Nature worship ; it was attempting to renew Paganism, 
and was the recognised and leading tenet in the higher 
Mysteries. Disputes on the nature of Christ were 
indeed coeval with the promulgation of Christianity. 
Some of the Jewish converts had never attained to the 
sublimer notion of his mediatorial character; but this 
disparaging notion, adverse to the ardent zeal of the 
rest of tile Christian world, had isolated this sect. The 
imperfect Christianity of the Ebionites had long ago 
expired in an obscure comer of Palestine. In all the 
other divisions of Christianity, tlie Clirist had more 
or less approximated to the office and character of this 
Being which connected maaJiind with the Eternal 
Father. 

2a 2 




356 BABELLIANISM. Book m. 

Alexandria, the fatal and prolific soil of speculative 
contrvrenr controversy, where speculative controversy was 
S i^!^ most likely to madden into furious and lasting 
***• hostility, gave birth to this new element of dis- 

union in the Christian world. The Trinitarian question, 
indeed, had already been agitated within a less extensive 
sphere. Noetus, an Asiatic, either of Smyrna or 
Ephesus, had dwelt with such exclusive zeal on 
the unity of the Gk)dhead, as to absorb, as it were, the 
whole Trinity into one undivided and undistinguished 
Being. The one supreme and impassible Father united 
to himself the man Jesus, whom he had created, by so 
intimate a cpnjunction, that the divine unity was not 
destroyed. His adversaries drew the conclusion, that, 
according to this blaspheming theory, the Father must 
have suffered on the cross, and the ignominious name 
of Patripassians adhered to the few followers of this 
onprosperous sect^ 

Sabellianism had excited more attention. Sabellius 
was an African of the Cyrenaic province. Ac- 
cording to his system it was the same Deity, 
under different forms, who existed in the Father, the 
Son, and the Holy Ghost A more modest and unof- 
fending Sabellianism might, perhaps, be imagined in 
accordance with modem philosophy. The manifesta- 
tions of the same Deity, or rather of his attributes, 
through which alone the Godhead becomes comprehen- 
sible to the human mind, may have been thus suc- 
cessively made in condescension to our weakness of 
intellect It would be the same Deity, assuming, as it 



* I bave TMt thought it nacessary i at Rome, on whicii the Philo^rhamen* 
lo rnivT into the various nhades of | has shed new lighL 
lff-«ia>dil»i!isitt.e(qpeciall7iBtheChurcli | 



i 



SABELLIANISM. 357 

wfire, an objective form, so as to come within the scope 
of the hmnan mind ; a real differeuce, as regarda the 
conception of man, perfect nnity in its subjective exist- 
ence. This, however, though some of its terms may 
appear the same with the Sabellianism of antiquity, 
would be the Trinitarianism of a philosophy unknown at 
this period. The language of the Sabelliao. Implied, to 
the jealous ears of their opponents, that the distinction 
between the persons of the Trinity was altogether un- 
real. While the Sabellian party charged their adver- 
saries with a Heathen Tritheistic worship, they retorted 
by accusing Sabellianism of annihilating the separate 
existence of the Son and the Holy Ghost. But Sabel- 
lianism had not divided Christianity into two irrecon- 
cileable parties. Even now, but for the commanding 
characters of the champions who espoused each party, 
the Trinitarian controversy might have been limited to 
a few provinces, and become extinct in some years. 
But it arose, not merely under the banners of men 
endowed with tliose abilities which command the mul- 
titude ; it not merely called into action the energies of 
successive disputants, the masters of the intellectual 
attainments of the age, — it appeared at a critical period, 
when tlie rewards of success were mote splendid, the 
penalty upon failure proportionately more severe. The 
contest was now not merely for a superiority over a few 
scattered and obscure communities, it was agitated on a 
vaster theatre, that of the Roman world ; the proselytes 
whom it disputed were sovereigns; it contested the 
supremacy of the human mind, which was now bending 
to the yoke of Christianity. It is but judging on tite 
common principles of human nature to conclude, that 
the grandeur of the prize supported the ambition and 
inflamed the passions of the contending parties, that 



S58 TEINITAEIAKISM. Book lift | 

Imman motivea of political power and aggrandiaemeBt 
mingled with the more spiritual influences of tbe love aS 
truth, and zeal for the purity of religion. 

The doctrine of the Trinity, that is, the divine nature 
TriniiHiM- of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghosts 
'""'■ was acknowledged by all. To each of these 

distinct and separate beings, botb parties ascribed the. 
iittributes of the Godhead, with the exception of self-i 
existeme, which was restricted by the Arians to the- 
Father, Both admitted the anti-mundane Being of the 
Son and the Holy Spirit. But, according to the Arian,. 
there was a time, before the commencement of the ages, 
4vhen the Parent Deity dwelt alone in undeveloped, 
undivided unity. At this time, immeasurably, incal- 
rulably, inconceivably remote, the majestic solitudo' 
ceased,' the divine unity was broken by an act of the' 
sovereign Will ; and the only begotten Sou, the imaga^ 
of the Father, the Vicegerent of all the divine power, 
the intermediate Agent in oil the long subsequent work 
of creation, bt^an to be.'' 

Such was the question which led to all the evils of 
human strife — hatred, persecution, bloodshed. But, how- 
ever profoundly humiliating this fact in the history of 
mankind, and in the history of Christianity an epoch of 
complete revolution from its genuine spirit, it may 
fairly be inquired, whether this was not an object mora' 
generous, more unselfish, and at least as wise, aa many 
I if those motives of personal and national advantage and 
aggrandisement, or many of those magic words, which, 
embraced by two parties with bhnd and unintelligent 
I'liry, have led to the moat disastrous and sanguinary 



I 




Chip. IV. TRISITARIANI3U. 369 

eventa in the flnnals of man. It might, indeed, liave 
been supposed that a profound metaphysical question of 
this kind would have been far removed I'rom the passions 
of the multitude ; hut with the multitude, and that mul- 
titude often comprehends nearly the whole of society, it 
is the passion which seeks the object, not the object 
which, of its own exciting influence, inflames the passion. 
In fact religion was become the one dominant passion of 
the whole Christian world ; and everything allied to it, 
or rather, in this case, which seemed to coucem its very 
essence, could no longer be agitated with tranquillity, 
or debated with indifference. The Pagan party, miscal- 
culating the inherent strength of the Christian system, 
saw, no doubt, in these disputes, the seeds of the destruc- 
tion of Christianity. The contest was brought on the 
stage at Alexandria;* but there was no Aristophanes, 
or rather the serious and unpoetic time could not have 
produced an Aristophanes, who might at once show that 
he understood, while he broadly ridiculed, the follies of 
his adversaries. The days even of a Lucian were past.' 
Discord, which at times is fatal to a nation or to a aect> 
seema at others, by the animating excitement of rivalry, 
the stirring collision of hostile energy, to favour the 
development of moral strength. The Christian republic, 
like Home when rent asunder by domestic factions, 
calmly proceeded in her conquest of the world. 

The plain and intelligible principle which united the 
opponents of Alius was, no doubt, a vague, and, however 
perhaps overstrained, neither uneenerous nor unnatural 
jealousy, lest the dignity of the Redeemer, the object of 
their grateful adoration, might in some way be lowered 




360 ALEXANDER — AEIUS. jtooEin, , 

by the new hypothesis. The divinity of the Saviour 
seemed inseparably connected with his eo-equality with 
the Father; it was endangered by the elightest eon- 
CBseion on this point. It was their argument, that if ] 
the Son was not coeval in existence with the Father, he ' 
must liave been created, and created ont of that which 
was not pre-esistent. But a created being must be 
liable to mutability ; and it was asserted in the pnblio 
address of the Patriarch of Alexandria, that this fatal 
consequence had been extorted from an unguarded 
Arian, if not from Arius himself, — that it was poeiible 
that the Son might have fallen, like the great rebelliona 
angel.* 

The patriarch of this important see, the metropolis of 
AisMnder. Egypt, was named Alexander. It was said that 
ALojuuidriB. Arius, a presbyter of acute powers of reasoning, 
popular address, and blameless character, had declined 
that episcopal dignity," The person of Arius' 
was tall and graceful ; his countenance calm, 
pale,andsubdued; his manners engnging ; his conversation 
fluent and persuasive. He was well acquainted with hu- 
man sciences ; as a disputant subtle, ingenious, and fertile 
in resources. His enemies add to this character, which 
themselves have preserved, that this humble and mor- 
tified exterior concealed unmeasured ambition ; that his 
simplicity, frankness, and honesty only veiled his craft 



I 



. Epiphsn. H^r. 


69. lom. i. p. 


' Arias is wid. in hi» «irly life, tO 


7i;3-7a7. 




have beta implicated in the le:! of the 




a (the Arian 


MeletisnB, which Kerns to ha.e beta 


writer). Theodoret 


on the other 


rather a partj than a sect. They 


hud, «}'(, that he 


lougtit forward 




hii opiiiioDB Iroin ea 


y at Ihc pi-omo- 


of Lyopoli*. who had btea dcpoeed 


tion of Aleiwdcr, 


.2. S« th. 


for hnvipg sacrificed during the ptr- 


Ku:l. 1. 6. 


in :»crat. HisL 


bccution. Yet this nect or party luted' 



I 



atip.iv. 



ALEXANDER — ARICS. 



and love of intrigue ; that he appeared to stand aloof 
from all party, merely that he might guide his cabal 
with more perfect command, and agitate and govern the 
hearts of men. Alexander was accustomed, whether for 
the instruction of the people, or the display of liis own 
powers, to debate in public these solemn qneationa on 
the nature of the Deity, and the relation of the Son and 
the Holy Spirit to the Father. According to the judge- 
ment of Arius, Alexander fell inadvertently into the 
heresy of Sabellianism, and was guilty of confounding 
in the simple unity of the Godhead the existence of the 
Son and of the Holy Ghost.'' 

The intemperate indignation of Alexander at the 
objections of Arius, betrayed more of the baf&ed dis- 
putant, or the wounded pride of the dignitary, than the 
serenity of the philosopher, or the meekness of the 
ChristiaD. He armed himself ere long in all the terrors 
of his ofSce, and promulgated his anathema in terms 
full of exaggeration and violence. " The impious Arius, 
the forerunner of Antichrist, had dared to utter his blas- 
phemies against the divine Kedeemer." Arius, expelled 
from Alexandria, not indeed before his opinions had 
spread through the whole of Egypt and Libya," retired 
to the more congenial atmosphere of Syria." There, his 




AB1U3 IN SYEIA. 



vague theory caught the less severely reaaoi 
more imaginative minds of the Syrian bishops : ° the 
lingering Orientalism prepared them for this kindred 
hypothesis. The most learned, the most pious, the most 
inBuential, united themaelves to his party. The chief 
of these were the two prelates named Eusebius, — out 
the ecclesiastical historian, the other, bishop of thtt 
important city of Nicomedia. Throughout the EasIS 
the controversy was propagated with earnest rapidity. 
It was not repressed by the attempts of Licinius to 
interrupt the free intercoarse between the Christian 
commimities, and his prohibition of the ecclesiastical 
synods. The ill-smothered flame burst into tenfold fury 
on the re-union of the East to the empire of Constan- 
tine. The interference of the Emperor was loudly 



1 

tod ■ 

the ■ 



ncondle (Ms accDimt of the Thajla 
with Qie labile Hnd politic character 
which his enemies Httribute to Atiui, 
atill loa to the pmlection of such men 
as Eusebius of Kicomedia, and the 
other Syrian prelates. Arios, lilie- 
wiK, composed hymns, in accordsacr 
with hia opioiona, to be chanted by 



aailoix. thosi 



oiked nl 



Songs 

abounded in the Groet poetrj : each 
art and Uado b;ul its song ;' nod AhuB 
may have intended no more titin to 
turn this jiupulu' practice in favoui- 
of ChriBtionity, by aubetitiiting au;red 
for pro&ne songs, whkli, of coursa, 
would be enibued with hia own 
DpinicDS. Might not (he Thalia faire 



ci-lebratad modem humoritt 



ind preacher ulapled hyuins t( 
>f tlie most popular airs, anil declarad 
bat the devil ought not Co btn all 
? The genera] style of 
have been aaft, efienii- 






), and popular, 
II the ThaUa (m A 



fftW Greet. Yet it 






jr would hi 
b so long. 



>, Or. i. 






° The bishops of Ptolemais, in the 
Pentapolis, and Theonas of ManoariBi, 
joined his paity. The femalei win 
inclined » hb side. Seven hundred 
rirgini of Alexandria, and of th« 
Mareotic nonie, owned him for their 
spii-itiinl tmeher. Compare the lett*.* 
Theodoret, ch. iv. 



I 




L-MAP. IT. LETTER OF CONSTANTIKE. 363 

demanded to allay the strife which distracted the Chris- 
tendom of the East. The behaviour of Constantiiie was 
regulated by the most perfect equanimity, or, more 
probably, guided by some counsellor of mild and more 
humane Christianity: his letter of peace was, Lei„To( 
in ita spirit, a model of temper and concilia- >^'"'"*""°^ 
tion." With profound sorrow he had heard that his 
designs for the unity of the empire, achieved by his 
victoiy over Licinius, as well os for the unity of tlie 
faith, had been disturbed by this unexpected contest. 
His impartial rebuke condemned Alexander for unne- 
cessarily agitating such frivolous and unimportant ques- 
tions, and Arius for not suppressing, in prudent and 
respectful silence, his objections to the doctrine of the 
Patriarch, It recommended the judicious reserve of the 
philosophers, who had never debated such subjects before 
an ignorant and uneducated audience, and who differed 
without acrimony on such profound questions. He 
entreated them, by the unanimous suppression of all 
feelings of unhallowed animosity, to restore his cheerful 
days and undisturbed nights. Of the same faith, the 
same form of worship, they ought to meet in amicable 
synod, to adore their common God in peaceful har- 
mony, and not fall into discord as to accuracy of ex- 
pression on these most minute of questions ; to enjoy 
and allow freedom in the sanctuary of their own minds, 
but to remain united in the common bonds of Christian 
k)va' 
It IB probable that the hand of Hoeins, bishop of 

» See ttelettBT la Enseb.Vit, Cod- | ipipjitit, /iirdv tJiTM Xoyitriu/O vpoa- 
llanl. ii. 64-73. inti, t# tSi Sianilar iiro^^^xfj 

fttHa-fuii iv i}^\i\\6t! ixpiBoKoyti- Ii. 71. 



364 COUSCIL OF NIC^A. Book Oti 



Cordova in Spain, is to be traced in that royal and' 
Christian letter. The influence of Hosius was uniformly 
exercised in this manner. Wherever the edicts of the 
government were mild, conciliating, and humane, 
find the Bishop of Cordova, It is by no meani 
improbable conjecture of Tillemont, that he was the 
Spaniard who afterwards, in the hour of mental agony 
and remorse, administered to the Emperor the balm of 
Christian penitence. 

Hosius was sent to Egypt, as the imperial Commia- 
aioner, to assuage the animosity of the distracted diurch. 
But religious stril'e, in Egypt more particularly, its nsr 
taral and prolific soil, refused to listen to the admonitions 
of Christian wisdom or imperial authority. Eusebius 
compares the fierce conflict of parties — bialiops with 
bishops, people witli people — to the collision of the 
Symplegiidea.'' From the mouthB of the Nile to the 
Cataracts, the divided population tumultuously disputed 
the nature of the divine unity," 

A general Council of the heads of the various Christii 
oomKUot communities throughout the Roman empife- 
was summoned by the imperial mandate, to 
establish, on the consentient authority of assembled 
Christendom, the true doctrine on these contested 
points, and to allay for ever this propensity to hostile^ 
tttj™™? disputatioQ. The same paramount tribunal 
idbEhh. was to settle definitively another subordinate 
question, relating to the time of keeping the Easter fes- 
tival. Many of the East«m communities shocked their 
more scrupulous brethren by following the calculations, 
and observing the eame sacred days with the impioi 



1 

il 



ted H 

iaiir:'^^ 

I 




r 



Chap. IV. COUSCIL OF NIC^A. Hco 

end abhorred Jews ; for the further we advance in the 

Christian history, the estrangement of the Christians 
from the Jews darkens more and more into absolute 
antipathy. 

In the month of May or June (the 20tii ') in the year 
325, met the great council of Nicsea, Not half 
a century before, the Christian bisliops even 
in that city had been only marked as the objects of the 
mo^ cruel insult and persecution. They had been 
chosen, on account of their eminence in their own com- 
munitiea, as the peculiar victims of the stern policy of 
the government. They had been driven into exile, set 
to work in tlie mines, exposed to every kind of humili- 
ation and suffering, from which some hod in mercy been 
released by death. They now assembled, under the 
imperial sanction, a religious senate irom all parts at 
least of the eastern world ; for Italy waa represeoted only 
by two presbyters of Rome ; Hosius appeared for Spain, 
Gaul, and Britain. The spectacle was altogether new 
to the world. No wide-ruling sovereign would ever 
have thought of summoning a conclave of the sacerdotal 
orders of the different religions ; a synod of philosophera 
to debate some grave metaphysical or even political 
question was equally inconsistent with the ordinary 
usE^es and sentiments of Grecian or Koman society. 

The public establishment of poat-horses was com- 
manded to afford every facility, and that gratuitously, 
for the journey of the assembling bishops." Vehicles or 
mules were to be provided, as though the assembly 
were an affair of state, at the public charge. At e 
laier period, when coancUs became more frequent, tht 



FIRST MEEt:NG8 OF THE COXTNCIL. Book 10,1 



Heathen liiBtorian complains, tliat tie public service 
was impeded, and tte post-lioraes harassed and ex- 
hausted, by the incessant journeying to and fro of the 
Christian delegates to their councils.' They were sump- 
tuously maintained during the sitting at the pubHo 
charge.* 

Above three bundled bishops were present, presbyter% 
Nnmber of deacons, acolj ths without number/ a eousidep- 
«iii. able body of laity : but it was the presence of 

the Emperor himself which gave its chief weight and 
dignity to the assembly. Nothing could so much coa- 
firm the Christians in the opinion of their altered po- 
eition, or decktre to the world at large the growing 
power of Christianity, as this avowed interest taken in 
their domestic concerns ; or so tend to raise the im- 
portance attached even to the more remote and specu- 
lative doctrines of the new faith, as this unprecedented 
condtHcension, so it would seem to the Heathen, on the 
firtimeet- part of the Emperor. The Council met, pro- 
coundi. bably, in a spacious basilica." Eusebiua do* 
scribes the scene as himself deeply impressed with its 
solemnity. T)ie assembly sate in profound silence; 
while the great officere of state and other dignified 
persons (tbei'e was no armed guai-d) entered the hall, 
and awaited in proud and trembling expectation the 



1 

" 1 



' Amm. MarMllinns, jri. 16. Bead 


■ TheieisalonEnoleinHeiuichen'i 


in Stanley'. Eosiem Church the g.Uier. 


EuBcbiuB to pram that Ihej did not 


iiig «id tha nBTneB Bud chni-aotera of 


meet in the palaw, hut ia i. chuidij 


Ihe Msembled bishops, p. 109, et siKiq. 


Bs though the authoi'ity of thmr pTO- 


■ Enseh. iii, 9. 


ceedicp depended upon thdr fhux of 


r There was ode Wsliop fium Petwa, 


assembly. It wa. proUbiy a haalie*. 


one {torn Scyt^ia. EuHbluo ttata the 


or hall of justice ; the kind of build- 


nuiDbu >C 250 ; that in the t»t ii 


ing uaually ■Da.le orer by the gomii. 


oi, the authority ot Theodorrt, Htid of 


ment for the purpoees of ChrlslBM 


the i,ainber> uid to have >igiHd the 


worahip; and, iu general, thg modd pt 


cr«id. 


the wlieat Christian edificw. 



I 



BEHAVIOPE OP CONSTANTINE. 



367 



B]Dpearance of tJie Emperor of the world in a Christian 
council. Constantine at length entered ; he was splen- 
didly attired ; the eyes of the bishops were dazzled by 
the gold and precious stones upon his raiment. The 
majesty of his person and the modest dignity of his de- 
meanour heightened the effect : the whole assembly 
rose to do him honour; he advanced to a low golden 
seat prepared for him, and did not take liig seat (it is 
difficult not to suspect Eusebius of highly colouring the 
deference of the Emperor), till a sign of penniesion had 
been given by the bishops.* One of the leading prelates 
(probably Eusebius the historian) commenced the pro- 
ceedings with a short address, and a hymn to Almighty 
God. Coiistantiue then delivered an exhortation to 
unity in the Latin language, which was interpreted 
to the Greek bishops. His admonition seems at first to 
have produced no great effect. Hutual accu^atiou, 
defence, and recrimination, prolonged the debate.'' 
Constandne Heemsto have been present during ti^MvioDrot 
the greater part of the sittingH, listening with *^'"'*""^- 
patience, softening asperities, countenancing those 
whose language tended to peace and union, and con- 
versing familiarly, in the best Greek he could command, 
with the different prelates. The courtly flattery of the 
council might attribute to Constantine himself what was 
secretly suggested by the Bishop of Cordova, For 
powerful and comprehensive as his mind may have 
been, it is incredible that a man so educated, and en- 
gaged during the early period of his life with military 



• Oil rpArtpop fl robt ivuritiwout 
hirfiaai. Sve also Socrsln, i. S. 
In Theodoret (i. 71, this has gnura 
into his humbly aiking 




KICENE CREED. 



and civil affairs, could have entered, particularly being 
imperfectly acquainted with tlie Greek language, into 
tliese discussions on religious metaphysics. 

The Council sate for rather more than two months.' 
Towards the close, Constantiue, on the occasion of the 
commencement of the twentieth year of his reign,'' con- 
descended to invite the bishops to a sumptuous banquet. 
All attended ; and, as they passed through the imperial 
guard, treated with every mark of respect, they could 
not but call to mind the total revolution in their circum- 
stances. Eueebius betrays his transport by the acknow- 
ledgment that they could scarcely believe that it was 
a reality, not a vision ; to the grosser conception (^ 
those who had not purified their minds from the mil- 
lennial notions, the banquet seemed the actual com- 
mencement of the kingdom of Christ. 

The Niceoe creed wae the result of the solemn deli- 
beration of the assembly. It was conceived 

Nkme cnwtU . , , n i< • in. 

With some degree of Oriental mdenniteneee, 
harmonised with Grecian subtlety of expression. The 
vague and somewhat imaginative fulness of its original 
eastern terms was not too severely limited by the fine 
precision of its definitions. One fatal word broke the 
harmony of assent with which it was received by the 
whole council. Christ was declared Homoousios, of the 
same substance with the Father,* and the undeniable, if 



the bbhopi who depued Paal rf 

SamoMta, were justified in rejectii^ 

tlie ward S/umiaiorf bec4Ud« thej 

UDtlentood it in a materia] or cott. 

. But the privily uUowM 

ho had died ia orthoda 

wna denied la the Ariio^ 

IDs : de S^odu, AUunt 

Ota. Oper. i. p. 759. It 

if this tnaii 



1 
\ 




I 







r 



Chap. IV. FIVE RECUSAKTS. 369 

perhaps inevitable, ambiguity of this single term, involved 
Christianity in centuries of hostility. To one party it 
implied absolute identity, and waa therefore only ill- 
disgoised SabellianiBm ; to the other it was eBsential to 
the co-equal and ro-eval dignity of the three persons in 
the Godhead. To some of the Syrian bishops it implied 
or countenanced the material notion of the Doity,'' It 
was, it is aaid by one rcclesiastieal historian, a battle in 
the night, in which neither party could see the meaning 
of the other.* 

Three hundred and eighteen bishops confirmed this 
creed by their signatures ; five alone still con- fwoi™!. 
tested the single expression, the Homoousion : '™* 
Eusebius of Nicomedia, Theognis of Niciea, Theonas ot 
Marmarica, Maris of Chalcedon, and Ensebius of Cseaarea, 



tire without the unpleasant conviction, 


Athnnaaiua der Grosse, b. i. p. 195. 


that Athanasiua was determined to 


Mohier but dimly sees the Gnostic or 


make out the Arians to he in the 


Oriental origin of this notion, which 


wrong. 


lies at the bottom of Arianiam. 


' MV« Tip iii'aaBal rhr oUAop 




Kol i/oipar (al i.aiii.a.Tov ipiaw, ira- 


credit to the judgement and irapsr- 


fUriKiv Ti TiBos i-piirraiTeiu. This 


tiality of Soeiales : Nunro/iaxio) 


is the languHgo of Eusebius. 




iaa-l Si S/iw! ircp] rairoii, is 


D^i yif iXXiiXaus ^afmvTo KaoSr- 


fipn aiKuy i Btis tV -ywnjT^ir 


T*i, if- a* itAikovi p>Mrilmfi7r 


ktIm, ^iir,^, h-t,3h i,ipa M 5"«- 




^Lil^^at,Titf^aaXl^•'■'^■'■ro5■wl.■ 


o«o-Io« ■,i,<' \Hiy iKKKiyovrts TJJy 


Tpii 4«piT0«, Kil T^, ir=p- «6toC 


ZnBtXAiBU Kal Mdwo»oS Siiali tiffit- 


SlJJllOUpyiai, aoKT nil KTlfo irpjTBS 


•ycTiiSai iur)]!' Tout irpO!rS»xo!'^''i"'i 


fiiims fiivor iva, nd KoXti tovrttv 




vlby Kfll k6yoy. Tvn -roirou (ilmu 


iKiXauF, is ixiufovyTft riir trap- 


ytroniuav, Ditriat \aiiriv Hal tA 


i>v Toii rIoS ToD @taZ- oi Jl iriUiv t^ 


Tiyra H oJtoE yfy4<rg« !vvy,»^. 






^t«ir,>i> Toiii fTt'povi ™^lfo>T«, J» 




'EAAimo^iii' tlavjimii ilrrpiwar- 


Tf, Kol 'AptlPI Kul i 9ia«s -AlTTi- 


TO. C. 23. Add1othffle.abo™all,the 


fat. Athan. Orat. il. c. 34. Om- 


decaiTe worfa of Arii.j himself, quota] 


parfl MOhler (a leamod and glrongly 


iQUtmChrUtianitj, i. 131. 


ortbodoi Eomui Olholic wfiter). 




VOL. li. 


2b 



970 



BAKISHMENT OF ARIOS. 



Kuriebiiis of N«M)media and Theognis were baoishi 
EiisebiuB of Csesarea, after much heBitation, consent 
to subscribe ; but sent the creed into his diocese with a 
comment, explanatory of the sense in which he under- 
stood the contested word. His chief care was to guard 
against giving the slightest countenance to the material 
conception of the Deity. Two only williBtood with un- 
compromising resistance the decree of the council. The 
BmiaiiTnent Bolemn anathema of this Christian senate was 
of Aiiia. pronounced against Anus and his adherents ; 
they were banished by the civil power ; and they were 
especially interdicted from distuibing the peace of Alex- 
andria by their presence." 

Peace might aeem to be restored; the important 
question set at rest by the united authority of the 
Emperor, and a representative body which might fairly 
jiresume to deliver the sentiments of the whole Christian 
world. But tlie Arians were condemned, not convinced ; 
discomfited, not subdued.' Hather more than two years 
elapsed, eventful in the private life of Conatantine, but 
tranquil in the history of the Christian church. The 
imperial assessor in the Christian council had appeared 
in the West under a different character, as the murderer 
of his 8M» and of his wife. He returned to the East, 
determined no more to visit the imperial city of the 
We^; where, instead of the humble deference with which 
all parties courted his approbation, he had l»een unable 






fusbage iD dw De SyDodiii, 


Oper. 1.) 


aocDwd not only tbe Arinn 


1 The wrftings of Arius *nd lu* 


«ii-AiT«n pnrtj, Euaehiia 




AriuB, of BDinetiiing like 


If we a« to Wieve SMomen [wbUh 




I oDDffsa, that 1 am diundined hi do) 


f Ml t^mi irlrpi, ikM 






worki ¥,-13 niad« ■ aipittd offcnet, 


oMitr. (p. 768, Athaa. 


e.. a. Lib. L c. 21. , 



I 



r 



BANISHMENT OF ARim. 371 

to close Iiii; ears against the audaoiuus and bitter pasqui- 
nade which arraigned his cruelty to his own famOy. 
Hia return to the East, instead of overawing the con- 
tending factions into that unity, which he declared to be 
the dearest wish of his heart, by his own sadden cJiange 
of conduct, was the signal for the revival of the fiercest 
contentions. The Christian community was aumgEinita 
now to pay a heavy penalty for the pride and CuosumiM. 
triumph with which they had hailed the interference of 
the Emperor in their religious questions. The imperial 
decisions had been admitted by the dominant party 
when on their own side, to add weight to the decree of 
the Council. At least they had applauded the sentence 
of banishment pronounced by tte civil power against 
their antagonists ; that authority now assumed a different 
tone, and was almost warranted, by their own admission, 
in expecting the same prompt obedience. The power 
which had exiled, might restore the heretic to his place 
and station. Court influence, however obtained through 
court intrigue, or from the caprice of the ruling sove- 
roign, by this fatal, perhaps inevitable step, became the 
arbiter of the most vital questions of Christian faith and 
discipline ; and thus the first precedent of a 
temporal punishment for an ecclesiastical of- 
fence was a dark prognostic, and an example, of the 
difficulties which wonld arise during the whole history 
of Christianity, when the communities, bo distinctly two 
when they were separate and adverse, became one by the 
identification of the Church and the State. The restora- 
tion of a banished man to the privileges of a citizen by 
the civil power, seemed to command his restoration to 
religious privileges by the ecclesiastical authority.'^ 



372 EUSEBICa OF NICOMEDIA. Boob IU.' 

The A nan party gradually grew into iavour. A' 
presbyter of Arian sentiments bad obtained complete 
command over the mind of Constantia, the sister of 
Conatantine. On her dying bed she entreated the 
Emperor to reconsider the justice of the sentence 
against that innocent, as she declared, and misrepre- 
sented man, Ariiw could not believe the sudden reverse 
of fortune; and not till he received a pressing letter 
from Constantine himself, did he venture to leave hia 
place of exile. A person of still greater importance 
was at the same time reinstated in tlie imperial favour. 
Eostwui rf Among the adherents of the Arian form, per- 
NtomiBU.. jijipg j^jig most important was Euaebiua, Bishop 
of Sicomedia. A dangerous suspicion that he had 
l»een too closely connected with the interests of Liciniua 
during the recent struggle for empire, had alienated the 
mind of Coostautiiie, aad deprived EusebiuB of that 
respectful attention which he might have commanded 
by his station, ability, and experience. With 
Theognis, Bishop of Nicjea, his faithful ad- 
herent in opinion and in fortune, he had been sent into 
exile ; it is remarkable tliat the prelates of these two 
sees, the most important in that part of Asia, should 
have concurred in these views. The exiled prelates, in 
their petition for reinstatement in their dioceses, de- 
clared and (notwithstanding the charge of falsehood 
which their opponents to the present day do not scruple 
to make, would they have ventured in a public docu- 
ment addressed to Constantino to misstate a fact so 
notorious ?) they solemnly protested that they had not 
refused their signatures to the Niceue creed, but only to 
the anathema pronotmced against Arius and his fol- 
lowers. " Their obstinacy arose not from waut of faith, 
but from excess of charity." They returned in triumph 



1 



r 



EUBEBIU3 OF NICOMEDIA. 



I 



to their dioceses, and ejected the bishops who had been 
appointed in their place. No resistance appears to have 
been made. 

But the Arians were not content with their peaceable 
re-establishment in their former station. However 
they might attempt to harmonise their doctrines with 
the belief of their adversaries, by their vindictive aggres- 
sion on the opposite party, they belied their pretenaiona 
to moderation and the love of peace. Ensebius, whom 
Conataotine had before publicly denounced in no 
measured terms, grew rapidly into favour. The com- 
plet-e dominion, which from this time he appears to 
have exercised over the mind of Consfantine, confirms 
the natural suspicion that the opinions of tlie Emperor 
were by no means formed by his own independent 
judgment, but entirely governed by the Christian 
teacher who might obtain his favour. Eusebius seeniB to 
have succeeded to the influence exercised with so much 
wisdom and temper by Hosius of Cordova. He became 
Bishop of Constantinople, and was the companion of 
Constantine in his visits to Jerusalem ;" and the high 
estimation in which the Emperor held also Eusebius ef 
Ciesarea, according to the statements made, and the 
documents ostentatiously preserved by that writer in his 
ecclesiastical history, could not but contribute to the 
growing ascendancy of Arianism. They were in posses- 
sion of some of the most important dioceses in Asia ; 
they were ambitious of establishing their supremacy in 
Autioch. 

The suspicious brevity with which Eusebius glides 
over the early part of this transaction, which bis peraonai 
vanity could not allow him to omit, confirms the state- 



r 



j7* COXnUCT OF THE AEUS PBELATES. fl« 

ment of their adrersaries, as to the anjujjtifiable m 
•.a-na. employed by the Arians to attain this object. 

itejutH Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis passed 
AaikK^ through Antioch on their way to JeniBalem. 
On their return, they §umiiioned Eustathlus, 
Bishop of Antioch, whose character had hitherto been 
blameless, to answer before a hastily assembled council 
iif bishops, on two distinct charges of immorality and 
heresy. The unseemly practice of bringing forward 
women of disreputable character to charge men of high 
fitation in the church with, incontinency, formerly em- 
ployed by the Heathens to calumniate the Christians, 
was now adopted by the reckless hostility of Christian 
faction. The accusation of a prostitute against Eusta- 
thius, of having been the father of her child, is said 
alterwards to have been completely disproved, Tlie 
heresy with which Eustathiua was charged, was that of 
Mabellianism, the usual imputation of the Arians against 
tlie Trinitarians of the opposite creed. Two Arian 
bishops having occupied the see of Antioch, but for a 
very short time, an attempt was made to remove Euse- 
bius of Csesarea to that diocese, no doubt to overawe by 
tlie high reputation of his talents, or to conciliate the 
Eustathisn party. Eusebius, with the flattering appro- 
bation of the Emperor, declined the dangerous post, 
Eustatbius was deposed, and banished, by the imperial 
edict, to Thrace ; but the attachment, at least of a large 
part, of the Christian population of Antioch refused to 
ai'knowledge the authority of the tribunal, or the justice 
of the sentence. The city was divided into two fierce 
and hostile factions — they were on the verge of civil war; 
and Antioch, where the Christians had first formed | 
themselves into a separate community, but for tha 
vigorous interference of the civil power and the timely 




r 



ATllANA3rCS. 375 

appearance ol an imperial cotnmisaioner, might have 
witnessed the first blood ahed, at least in the East, in a 
Christian quarrel. 

It is impossible to calculate how far the authority and 
influence of the Syrian bishops, with the avowed counte- 
nance of the Emperor (for Constantius, the son of Con- 
stautine, was an adherent of the Arian opinions), might 
have subdued the zeal of the orthodox party. It is 
[josaible that, but for the rise of one inflexible and in- 
domitable antagonist, the question might either have 
sunk to rest, or the Christian worid acquiesced, at least 
the East, in a vague and mitigated Arianism. 

Athanasius had been raised by the discernment of 
Alexander to a station of confidence and dignity. 
He had filled the office of secretary to the Alex- 
andrian prelate. In the Council of Nic«a he had borne 
a dii^tinguiBhed part, and his seiU and talenta det^ignated 
him at once as the head of the Trinitarian party. On 
the death of Alexander, tlie universal voice of the predo- 
minant anti-Arians demanded tlie elevation of Athana- 
sius. In vain he attempted to conceal himself, and to 
escape the dangerous honour. At thirty years of age, 
Athanasius was placed on the episcopal throne 
of the see, which ranked with Antioch, and 
afterwards with Constantinople, as the most important 
spiritual charge in the East." 

The imperial mandate was issued to receive Ariua 
and his followers within the pale of the Christian com- 
munion." But Constantine found, to his astonishment, 
thnt an imperial edict, which would have been obeyed 



AnsDB luea-tcd thb elntiiHi ' tbc d«1 
tipfn csrrieil by the iiTegalar j • Ati 
if n ftw liiihope, contiwy lo ' ii. 2-2. 



376 cnABGES AGAISST ATHANASICS. Book ULI 

in trembling submission from one end of the Romaa 

empire to the other, even if it had enacted a complete 
political revolutioD, or endangered the property and 
privileges of thousands, was received with deliberate and 
steady disregard by a single Christian bishop. During 
two reigns, Athauasina contested the authority of the 
Emperor, He endured persecution, calumny, exile ; hia 
life was frequently endangered in defence of one single 
tenet ; and that, it may be permitted to say, the most 
pui-ely intellectual, and apparently the most remote from 
cinrgM the ordinary passions of man : he confronted 
AUuiiMiM. martyrdom, not for the broad and palpable 
diatinction between Christianity and Heathenism, but 
for fine and subtle expressions of the Christian creed.' 
He began and continued the contest not for the tolera- 
tion, but for the supremacy, of his own opinions. 

Neither party, iu truth, could now yield without the 
humiliating acknowledgment that all their contest had 
been on unimpoilant and imessential points. The 
[lassions and the interests, as well as the conscience 
were committed in the strife. The severe and uncom- 
promising temper of Athanasius, no doubt, gave some 
advantage to his jealous and watchful autagouista. 
Criminal charges hegau to multiply against a prelate 
who was thiB fallen in the imperial favour." They 



* I lun not pcraioded, either hy Ic^ol predalon of Athanulut. 
the powerful eloqaenca of AthaoBiina * Theodoret meatiDas one of thm 

fainuelf, or h; hie able modera apolo- cnitoiDiuj chaises of Jicentiaiunen, 

gilt, MBhler, that the opinioni, at in which n iraiiiBO of bad oharactM 

le»at,of the Syrian Mmi-Arions, were accawd AthaUBsioi of violating her 

to utterly irreconcilaible witb the chastity. Athanaalnswu lilait; while 
orthodoiy of AUuuuiBitu, or likely to . one of bis friendi, with anumed JD- 

piuducs inch fatal coDBequeaora to the dignatioa demanded. " Do you •eeuM 

general tyitfin of Christiitdtj as are nw of this Grime?" "Yes," rqiliol 

enoi'tal from tham by the keen theo- the wdoisd. lupposioj; him I ' 



I 



CHAKGES AGAINST ATHAKASIUS. 



377 . 



I 



were aasiduouely inetiUed into the ears of Constantine ; 
yet the extreme frivolousnesa of some of these accusa- 
tions, and the triumphant refutation of the mora 
material charges, before a tribunal of his enemies, 
establish, undeniably, the unblemished virtue of Athan- 
aaius/ He was charged with taxing the city to provide 
linen vestments for the clergy ; and with treasonable 
correspondence with an enemy of the Emperor. Upon 
this accusation he was gummoned to Nicomedia, and 
acquitted by the Emperor himselt He was charged, as 
having authorised the profanation of the holy vessels, 
and the sacred books, in a church in the Mareotis, a 
part of his diocese. A certain Ischyras had assumed the 
office of presbyter, without ordination, Macarius, who 
was sent by Atlianasius to prohibit his officiating in his 
usurped dignity, was accused by Ischyras of overthrow- 
ing the altar, breaking the cup, and burning the 
Scriptures. It is not impossible that the indiscreet 
zeal of an inferior may have thought it right to destroy 
sacred vessels thus profaned by unhallowed bands. But 
from Athanasius himself the charge recoiled without the 
least injury. But a darker charge remained behind — 
comprehending two crimes, probably in those days 



Athanasiufi, of whose persoD she was 

mj chaBtitj." L. i. c, 30. 

' It ii remsrlnible, boir little f^tiena 
U kid OD th« pcrsecDtlooa which 
Athanasiufl h occiued of having car- 
ried on throQgh the civil authoiitj. 
Accuwtua pnet«reH eet de injiuiis, 
Tiulentli, capde, alqaeipHftepiscoporum 
intemecione. QiiiqnB EtiBm diebui 
1 puBchn tynmntco mora 
DacibnB dtqtte Comitfbus 



ia custodift recludebmit. aliquos vero 
Terberibus flsgel Usque veiabaat, 
CKlei™ diyereii tormoitia ed oom- 
mnnionem ^us saciilegam adigebaut. 
Th«e charges neither hbd to hart 
been pressed nor refill 
imjnrtfuit M the net of 
the protest of the Arian bishopi it 
Siirdloi, in Hikirii Op^r. Hist. Fragm. 



, aa half « 
Milege. S« 



&78 6TN0D OF TYKE. Book IB, 

looked upon with equal abhorrence — magic and murder, 
The enemies of Atlianasius produced a human hand eaid 
to be that of ArseniuB, a bishop attached to the Meletian 
heresy, who had disappeared from Egypt in a suspicious 
maimer. The hand of the murdered bishop had been 
kept by Atlianasius for unhallowed purposes of witch- 
crallt. In vain the emissaries of Athunasius sought for 
Arsenius in Egypt, though he was known to be con- 
cealed in that country ; but the superior and one of the 
monks of a monastery were seized, and compelled to 
confess that he was still living, and had lain hid in their 
sanctuary. Yet the charge was not abandoned: it 
impended for more than two years over the head of 
Athanasius, 

A council, chiefly formed of the enemies of Athana^ 
siua, was summoned at Tyre. It was intimated to the 
Alexandrian prelate, that, if he refused to appear before 
the tribunal, he would be brought by force. Athana- 
spod of sius stood before the tribunal. He was arraigned 
i.T.. 336. on this charge ; the hand was produced. To 
the astonishment of the court, Athanasius calmly de- 
manded whether those present were acquainted with 
the person of Arsenius ? He had been well known to 
many. A man was suddenly brought into the court with 
liis whole person folded in liis mantle. Athanasius un- 



I 



covered the head of the witness. He was at once : 



'ecog- 



uifled as the murdered Arsenius, Still the severed hand 
lay before them, and the adversaries of Athanasius 
expected to convict him of having mutilated the victim 
of his jealousy. Athanasius lilted up the mantle on one 
side, aud showed the right hand ; he lifted up the other, | 
and showed the left In a calm tone of sarcasm he j 
observed, that the Creator had bestowed two hands on J 
man ; it was for his enemies to explain how Arsenitttfl 




'. IV. ATHAXASIUS IK COSSTAXTIXOPLE. 379 

possessed a third.' A fortunate accident had 
brought Arsenius to Tyre ; he had been discovered by 
the friends of Athanasiua. Though he denied his name, 
he was known by the bishop of Tyre ; and this dramatic 
scene had been arranged as the most effective means of 
exposing the malice of the prelate's enemies. His dia- 
comflted accusers iled in the confusion. 

The implacable enemies of Athanasius were con- 
etrained to fall back upon the other exploded charge, the 
profanation of the sacred vessels by Macarius. A com- 
mission of inquiry had been issued, who conducted 
themselves, according to the statement of the frieuds of 
Athanasius, with the utmost violence and partiality. 
On their report, the bishop of the important city of 
Alexandria was deposed from his dignity. But Athana- 
sius bowed not beneath the storm. He appears to have 
been a master in what may be called, without disrespect, 
theatrical effect. As the Emperor rode through Aihsnsmn 
the city of Constantinople, he was arrested by onopie. 
the sudden appearance of a train of ecclesiastics, in the 
midst of which was Athanasiua The offended Em- 
peror, with a look of silent contempt, urged his horse 
onward. " God," said the prelate, with a loud voice, 
"shall judge between thee and me, since thou thus 
espousest the cause of my calumniators. I demand only 
that my enemies be summoned and my cause heard in 
the imperial presence." The Emperor admitted the 
justice of his petition ; the accusers of Athanasius were 
commanded to appear in Conataotinople. Six of them, 
including the two Eusebii, obeyed the mandate. 

But a new charge, on a subject skilfully chosen to 
awaken the jealousy of the Emperor, counteracted the 




DEATH OF BOrATER. 



1 



influence wbicli might have been obtained by the 
Km ksom,- quence or the guiltlessness of Athanaains. 
"™^ is remarkable that an accusation of a very 

similar nature should have caused the capital punishment 
of the most distinguished among the Heathen philosophic 
party, and the exile of the moat eminent Christian pre- 
late. Constantinople entirely depended for the supply 
of com upon foreign, importation. One-half of Africa, 
including Egypt, was assigned to the maintenance of 
the new capital, while the Western division alone re- 
DMib ot mained for Rome. At some period duiing the 
phiitsopiiH-. later years of Constantino, the adverse ninds 
detained the Alexandrian fleet, and &mine began to 
afSict the inhabitants of the city. The populace was in 
tumult ; the government looked anxiously for means to 
allay the dangerous ferment. The Christian party had 
seen with jealouBy and alarm tlie influence which a 
Heatlien philosopher, named Sopater, had obtained over 
the mind of Constantine.' Sopater was a native of 
Apamea, the scholar of lamblichus. The Emperor took 
great delight in his society, and was thus in danger of 
being perverted, if not to Heathenism, to that high 
Platonic indifferentism, which would leave the two 
religions on terms of perfect equality. Sopater was 
seen seated on public occasions by the Emperor's side ; 
and boasted, it was said, that the dissolution of Heathen- 



•Ztaimus. ii. 40 i Soiom. 1-5; 


f1Xt>. "t TiK I.(ll,. ,^li«y TOItiF. 


Komp, in Miti. p. 2J-S5 ; edit. 






» .r.^iw<^..;.rT« {tiw chnf 


If wt are to beliere Ennapius. the 




Christl™ miRht ™soi»blf take 


infiu«n«I) hy^^ty^L rf f^Jry 






with SopiiCT- : i iiir floffiAti! taJiiiui 




n iir- ainv lal ttl^oalif air.tfw 


J 



ARIUS IN CONSTANTINOPLE. 



H CnAC. 

B iBm would be arrested by liis authority. During the 
W famiae the Emperor eutered the theatre ; instead of the 
usual acelamationB, he was received with a duU and 
melancholy silence. The enemies of Sopater seized the 
opportunity of accusing the philosopher of magic : his 
unlawful arts had bound the winds in the adverse 
quarter. If the Emperor did not, the populace would 
readily, believe hhn to be the cause of all their cala- 
mities. He was sacrificed to the popularity of the 
Emperor; the order for his decapitation was hastily 
issued, and promptly executed. 

In the same spirit which caused the death of the 
Heathen philosopher, Athanaaius was accused of threat- 
ening to force the Emperor to his own measures, by 
Btopping the supplies of com from the port of Alex- 
andria. Constantine listened with jealous credulity to 
the charge. The danger of leaving the power of starving 
II, the capital in the hands of one who might bec-ome 
hostile to the government, touched the pride "^ 3sb. 
(rf the Emperor in the tenderest point. Atha- BmiBhiuMi 
nafiiuB was banished to the remote city of utnvu, 
Treves. 

But neither the exile of Athanaaius, nor the un- 
qualified — bis enemies of course asserted insincere or 
hypocritical — acceptance of the Nicene creed by Arius 
Hmself, allayed the differences. The presence of Arius 
in Alexandria had been the cause of new dissensions. 
He was recalled to Constantinople, where a inusincon- 
council had been held, in which the Arian ■'™i™pi'^ 
party maintained and abused their predominance. But 
Alexander, the Bishop of Constantinople, still firmly 
resisted the reception of Arius into the orthodox com- 
munion. Affairs were hastening to a crisis, ITie Arians, 
with the authority of the Emperor on their side, threat- 



3*2 DEATH OF ARIDS. EwMt 

fined to force their way into the church, and to compel 
the admissiuu of their champion. The Catholics, the 
weaker party, had recourse to prayer ; the Arians already- 
raised the voice of triomph. While AlexaDder was pros- 
trate at the altar, Arias was borne through the wondering 
city in a kind of ovation, surrounded by his friends, and 
welcomed with loud acclamations by bia own party. 
As he passed the porphyry column, he was forced to 
retire into a house to relieve his natural wants, Hia 
D«tb of return was anxiously expected, but in vain ; he 
^""^ was found dead, as bis antagonists declared, 
his bowels had burst out, and relieved the church from 
the presence of the obstinate heretic We cannot wonder 
that, at such a period of excitement, the Catholics, in 
that well-timed incident, recognised a direct providential 
interference in their favour. It was ascribed to the 
prevailing prayers of Alexander and hia clergy. Under ' 
the specious pretext of a thanksgiving for the deliverance 
of the church from the imminent peril of external vio- 
lence, the Bishop prepared a solemn service. Athana- 
siuB, in a public epistle, alludes to the fate of Judas, 
which had befallen the traitor to the coequal dignity of 
the Son. His hollow charity ill disguises his secret 
triumph." 

Whatever effect the death of Anus might produce 
upon the mind of Constantine, it caused no mitigation 
in bis unfavourable opinion of Atbanasius. He con- 
temptuously rejected the petitions which were sent from 
Alexandria to solicit his re -instatemeut ; he refused to 



hst the d<sth of A 
ient rcfutatiOQ of 






sd Momchai, 3. Op. 



r 



BAPTISM OF CONSTANTINE. 



383 



recall that " prood, turbulent, obstmate, and intractalJe," 
preiato. It was not till he waa on Ma death-bed that 
hia consent was hardly extorted for this act of mercy, 
or rather of justice. 

The Baptism of CoQBtautine on hia death-bed is one 
1 f those questions which has involved eccleaias- g^n^ at 
tical historians in inextricable embarrassment. c<™™""' 
The fact is indisputable, it rests on the united authority 
of the Greek and Latin writers. Though he had so 
openly espoused the cause of Christianity — though he 
had involved himself so deeply in the interests of the 
Christian community, attended on their worship, pre- 
sided,* or at least sanctioned their councils with fiis 
presence, and had been constantly surrounded by the 
Christian clergy, the Emperor had still deferred till the 
very close of bis life his ibrmal reception into the Chria- 
tian church, the ablution of his ains, the admission to 
the privileges and hopes of the Christian, by that indis- 
penaable rite of Baptism.'' There seems but one plain 
solution of this difficulty. The Emperor constantly 
maintained a kind of superiority over the Christian part 



> If we are to Ulieie EuMhiiu, be 


tiana imprimis, parum saoael prapius 






preacher on Bom* of its most profound 


remota notio. Nesoiua enim alutis 


and mpUriDUS doctrines. 1 ouiiiot 


et beoeficiornm k Christo hiimano 


help suapecUog Uiat tlie Biehap haa 


generi partorum, Christunl Deum esse 




putabat, qui cultonmi suoruin iideni 


W the Emperor. V. C. iv. 29. Com- 




pitt Stanley, p. 333. 


rebusque Kcondii cpmparare, hostcx 






Christianitj of Conslantine a« oha- 


malisque omnia generis aJEixre poluit. 




. . . . Ita sensim de Tera re!igioai> 


jodgment. De rehm Christ, anti 
Const Magnum, p. 365. I eitiaol 

poit victum MaMnlium wmii inaDinio 


ChristlMue indele .... edoctus stul- 




superstition um clanue perspiciebat, et 
ChHsto uDi nnon nomen daboU" p. 


ajui cum omnis Kligioni.. turn Chris- 


977, 9TS. 



ftB4 BAPTISM OF COIT8T,\NTlNE. Book lit 

of his subjects. It was BtiU ratter the lofty and impar- 
tial condescension of a protector, than the spiritual 
equality of the proselyte. He stiJl asserted, and in maDy 
cases exercised, the privilege of that high indifferentism, 
which ruled his conduct by his own will or judgement, 
rather than by the precepts of a severe and definite 
religion. He was reluctant, though generally convinced 
of the truth, and disposed to recognise the superiority of 
the Christian religion, to commit himself by the irrevo- 
cable act of initiation. He may have been still more 
unwilling to sever himself entirely from the Heathen 
majority of hia subjects, lest by such a step, in some 
sudden yet always possible crisis, he might shake their 
allegiance. In short, he would not surrender any part 
of his dignity as Emperor of the world, especially as he 
might suppose that, evea if neceseai-y to hia salvation as 
a Christian, he could command at any time the advan- 
tages of baptism. On the other hand, the Chris- 
tians, then far more pliant than when their 
undisputed authority ruled the minds of monarchs with 
absolute sway, hardly emerged from persecution, strug- 
gling for a still contested supremacy, divided among 
themselves, a.nd each section courting the favour of the 
Emperor, were glad to obtain an imperial convert on hie 
own terms. In constant hope that the Emperor himself 
would take tliis decisive step, they were too prudent or 
too cautious to urge it with imperious or unnecessary 
vehemence. He was not so entirely their own, but that 
he might still be estranged by indiscretion or intem- 
perance ; he would gradually become more enlightened, 
and they were content to wait in humble patience till 
Providence, who had raised up this powerful protector, 
should render him folly, and exclusively, and opeoly- 
their own. 



1 




Lnu-. IV. LAWS AGAINST PAGANISM. SiS 

If it be diiBcuIt (o determine the extent to which 
CoDstantine proceeded in the eBtabtisbment of Ejiemu. 
Christianity, it is even more perplexing to ^"i^^' 
estimate how far lie exerted the imperial p""*^ 
authority in the aboh'tion of Paganism. Conflicting 
evidence encounters us at every point, EusebioB, in 
three distinct paasagea in his ' Life of Constantine,' 
asserts that he prohibited sacrifice;' that he issued two 
laws to prohibit, both in the city and in the country, 
the pollutions of the old idolatry, the setting up of 
statues, divinations, and other unlawful practices; and 
to command the total abolition of sacrifice;' that 
throughout the lloman empire the " doors of idolatry " 
were closed to the people and to the army, and every 
kind of sacrifice was prohibited.'* Theodoret asserts " 
that Constantine prohibited sacrifice, and, though he did 
not destroy, shut up all the temples. In a passage of 
his Panegyric," Eusebius asserts that the Emperor sent 
two officers into every part of the empire, who forced the 
priests to surrender up the statues of their gods, which, 
having been despoiled of their ornaments, were melted 
or destroyed. These strong assertions of Eusebius are, to 
a certain extent, confirmed by expressions in the laws of 
Constantine's Hnccessois, especially one of Constans, which 



• e^o £ir<IpnT<>, ii. 44. 


^tr ipxS W»">'t T« ical npn 




t(i1bi, Burioi t< Tpiies inTryofn 
.St. iv. 23. lunuKiiTa ^if 




(»^Ai»I, ibid. 25. t<ifw.i naj 




• Tbeodortt, Ti. 21. CompM* 
men.iii. 17; OroJius, Tii. 28. 
<> De Uudlb. CongtanL i. B. 


* KiLfliiXOU, it TnU iwh TYJ 'Pb- 




VOL. II. 


2c 



888 KXTENT TO WHICH Bock lU. 

appeals to an edict of his father Constanliiie, which 
prohibited sacrifice." 

On the other hand, Eusebius bimBelf inserts, and 
ascribes to a date posterior to Bome of these laws, docu- 
ments, which he professes to have seen in Constantioe's 
own hand, proclaiming tlie most impai'tial toleration to 
the Pagans, and deprecating compulsion in religions 
matters. "Let all enjoy the same peace; let no one 
disturb another in his religious worship ; let each act as 
he thinks fit ; let those who withhold their obedience 
from Thee (it is an address to the Deity), have their 
temples of falsehood if they think right." ^ He exhorts 
to mutual charity, and declares, "It is a very different 
thing willingly to submit to trials for the sake of im- 
mortal life, and to force others by penalties to embrace 
one faith." ' These generous sentiments, if Constantine 
were issuing edicts to close the temples, and prohibiting 
the sacred rites of his Pagan subjects, had been the 
groesest hypocrisy. The laws against the soothsayers 
spoke, as was before shown, the same tolerant language 
with regard to the public ceremony of the religion." 



1 



I 



I 



' "CeiKt iDpentltJa, neriRcionim , fia^A.<T(u tuDts koI wparrFrit , . . 

ibolmtnr iiuania. Nun quicuDque Of !' (airroii ip4\Koms, ix^"^^' 

oeotn \fsaa divi PiiiKipu, paivnlig BBii\6ii.frin ri T^t 'ttaSakoyiai 

noatri, ft banc nostra tmuiEuetuiIiais ri/ityii, Vit. CcDBt. ii. 26. 

bimrt, compcteEa ia cum Tindietn, et raalas iB\iir itoiialai IwaraipiioVai, 

prBHU KDtfntia eiHraCur." Cod. KUu ri fu-ri TiiiapUi irarayxi- 

Theodoa. ivi. 10. 3. See Uktvae the it,r. c. «0. 

note ef Godefro;. ^ "Qui ytvo id vobi^i eoBtiniatiB 

' 'Ofufov mil trioTfiouru- ol condncarc, nditc nriu puUiias itqiit 

it^aaiiLtuyoi j^aiporrts XoftfiaifiTU- delubra Ft coDBUtitudinia vestTjj; cck- 

ffia fi^t^T Tf vol ^ffvx^ iwAKai/- brat« BoienmiA ; iw enitQ prohibemiu 

irai . . . . MqStli rhv !ripnit nafi- jirEtfritc uiurpationii afficia liban 

Ttf rc^^l Ijuwrrs! trip q ^f^^ lio ti'actari." Cod. Theodoi. Ivi. 10 



Chap, IV. PAGANISM WAS 8UPPEESSED, 387 

Can the victory over Liciniua bo entirely have changed 
the policy of Conatantine, as to have induced him to 
prohibit altogether rites, wliich but a few years before 
he had sanctioned by his authority ? 

The Pagan writers, who are not scrupulous in their 
charges against the memory of Conetantine, and dwell 
with bitter resentment ou all his overt acts of hostility 
to the ancient religion, do not accuse him of these direct 
encroachments on Paganism, Neither Julian nor Zosi- 
muB lay tliis to his charge. Libanius distinctly asserta 
that the temples were left open and undisturbed during 
his reign, and that Paganism remained unchanged.' 

All historical records strongly confirm the opinion 
that Paganism was openly professed ; its temples re- 
Btored ; '' its rites celebrated ; neither was its priesthood 
degraded from their immunities, nor the estates belong- 
ing to the temples generally alienated ; in short, that it 
was the public religion of a great part of the empire ; 
and still coiifponted Christianity, if not on equal teiina, 
still with pertinacious resistance, down to the reign of 
Theoilosius, and even that of his sons, Constantine him- 
self, though he neither offered sacriflces, nor eonsiilt«d 
the Sibylline books, nor would go up to the temple of 
the Capitoline Jupiter with the senate and the people, 



' TQf uteri vi/ijni Si Btpawttat tbe HuUinrity of the IM-KrHl of lh« 

Mrtirtv obti Ir. Pro Templia, Tol. city, an.l S. P. Q. I:. Allars were 

ii. p. 162. er«l«i to oilier Pugaa pkis, Compnn 

Liboniiu adds tint Cosatmitius, on Betignot, i. 106. 

Id chiinge of circkimslanoes, _SrsJ M. Beiignot, in his FlwtruifiDn dn 

, ted wicrifice. Compnre aUo PnEanianie ea Owident, Ims collflrtrf 

f Oral. 2«. JuliBn Omt. Til. p. 424. with great iodo-tiy Ihe prooti of thfi 

100, n. 6, Ihe f»ft, from hacripliong, nwJnla. la-' 

Innilion of ths olher of tbe more minute coDfeir 

:>mpie of Coneoid, Jurin« the coobbI- porwy memoruJi. 
Ip of Pauliom {A. C. Ml, 332), by 

2pii 




iBOLITIOX OF SACRIFICES. 



Book IC H 
at least ■ 



performed, nevertheless, some of the functions, at least 
did not disdEtin the appellation, of Supreme Pontiff. 

Perhaps we may safely adopt the following conclusions. 
There were two kinds of sacrifices abolished by Coustan- 
tine. I. The private sacrifices, connected with unlawful 
acts of tbeui^y and of magic ; those midnight offerings 
to the powers of darkness, which, in themselves, were 
illegal, and led to scenes of unhallowed licence," II. 
Those which might be considered the state sacrifices 
offered by the Emperor himself, or by his representatives 
in his name, either in the cities or in the army. Though 
Constantine adyanced many Chriatians to offices of trust, 
and no doubt many who were ambitious of such offices 
conformed to the religion of the Emperor, probably most 
of the high dignities of the state were held by Pagans. 
An edict might be required to induce them to depart 
from the customorj' usage of eaorifiee. wliieh with the 
Christian officers would quietly fall into desuetude." 
But still, the sacrifices made by the piiesthood, at the 
expense of the sacerdotal establishments, and out of 
their own estates — though in some instances these 



' Than >> ■ ninlHl at 
aotiua u Supreme Ponli 



it of Coli- 



■■ S« the laws reliCing la diTJIia- 
tion, tbare, p. 392. 

M. U Bulit nod H. Beugnot, oaukl 
tttnacter the terms rk ^wrq^ Tijs 
•iJwXoXoTpim, in the rfsoipl of 
ConstODtiae, ind the "insuia iup«i^ 
itilio'' of the law of Conilau, to 
Tvftr eicJuBJTelj lo llie« DOoturno] 
find forbiddeii amfim. M. fiedgnol 
hjH abmTed, that Oooiluitiiie ■Iwa;:^ 
uiei respeclfBl and coortcooi Ungiuge 
fcncernmE Pnfanum. Vetus obser- 



so[emnti ; coDsuetudinis geotilitur 
nkmnit^ The laws of the later 
emperora employ very different termn. 
Error ; defMMia ; error Tettrum ; 
proAiDiii rilui ; ncrile^us ritui ; 
ndahui ntua; nipeFBtitio Pag«iu, 

funiuta! superatilionis erro™ [ Uolldui 
E^ooram error. Cod. Tbmtoa, 
t. r. p. 355, BeagDot, torn, i, p. BO. 

■ The pn^bition to the iq^i and 
arfwrurrunl {m ijiiDlatioa abon 
from EiisebioSj tdei^ I cmiziira, m 



r 



Chap. IV. LKGAL ESTABLISHMENT OV CHHISTIAMITr. 38y 

satates were seized by Constantine, and the sacerdotal 
colleges reduced to poverty — and the piiblie sacrifices, 
offered by the piety of distingmshed individuals, would 
be made as usual. In the capital there can be little 
doubt that sacrifices were offered, in the name of the 
senate and people of Eome, till a much later period. 

Christianity may now be said to have ascended the 
imperial throne: with the single exception of UgaiKia- 
Julian, from this period the monarchs of the chnnuniiy. 
Eoman empire professed the religion of the Gospel. 
This important crisis in the history of Christianity almost 
forcibly arrests the attention to contemplate the change 
wrought in Christianity by its advancement into a domi- 
nant power in the state ; and the change in the condition 
of mankind up to tliis period, attributable to the direct 
authority or indirect influence of the new Eff«iBot 
religion. By ceasing to exist as a separate reiigion. 
community, and by advancing ita pretensions to influence 
the general government of mankind, Christianity, to a 
certain extent, forfeited its independence. It could not 
but submit to these laws, framed, as it might seem, with 
ita own concurrent voice. It was no longer a republic, 
governed exclusively — as far at least as ita religious 
concerns — by its own internal polity. The interference 
of the civil power in some of its most private affairs, the 
promulgation of ita canons, and even in some cases the 
election of its bishops, by the state, was the price which 
it must inevitably pay for its association with the ruling 
power. The natural satisiaction, the more than par- 
donable triumph, in seeing the Emperor of the world a 
I Eiuppliant with themselves at the foot of the cross, would 
blind the Christian world, in general, to theae conse- 
I quences of their more exalted position. The more ardent 
I and unworldly would fondly suppose that a Cliii&tian 



300 LEGAL ESTABLISHMENT OF CHWSTUXITY. Uwi nr. 

emperor would always be actuated by Chrigtian motives, 
and tliat tbe imperial authority, instead of making ag- 
gressions OD Christian independence, would rather bow 
in humble submiseion to its acknowledged dominiou. 
His main object would be to develope the energies of 
the new religion in the amplest freedom, and allow them 
full scope in the Bubjugation of the world. 

The Emperor as little anticipated that he was intro- 
oiiUiodviL ducing as an antagonistic power, an inextin- 
powor. guishable principle of liberty, into the adminis- 

tration of human afl'airs. This liberty was based on 
deeper foundations than the hereditary freedom of the 
ancient republics. It api^ealed to a tribunal higher 
than any which could exist upon earth. This autagooistic 
principle of independence, however, at times apparently 
crushed, and submitting to voluntary slavery, or even 
lending itself to be the instrument of arbitrary despot- 
ism, was inherent in the new religion, and would not 
cease till it had asserted and, for a considerable period, 
exercised an authority superior to that of the civil 
government. Already in Athanasius might be seen the 
one subject of Constantino who dared to resist his will. 
From Athanasius, who owned liimself a subject, but with 
inflexible adherence to his own opinions, to Ambrose, 
who rebuked the great Theodosius, and from Ambrose 
up to the Pope who set his foot on the neck of the pros- 
trate Emperor, the progress was slow, but natural and 
certain. In tliis profound prostration of the hmnan 
mind and the total extinction of the old sentiments of 
itomai) liberty, in the adumbration of the world by what 
assumed the pomp and tlie language of an Asiatic 
despotism, it is impossible to calculate tlie latent as well 
as open effect of this moral resistance. In Constan- 
tinople, indeed, and in liie East, the clergy never ob- 



1 



Cr*p. IV. LEGAL ESTABI.ISHMEKT OF CHRISTIANITY. 391 

taiiied cruHicient power to be formidable to the civil 
anthority ; their feuds too often brought them in a sort 
of moral servitude to the foot of the throne ; Btill the 
Chrietian, and the Chrigtiaii alone, throughout this long 
period of humaa degradation breathed an atmosphere of 
moral freedom, which raised him above the general level 
of servile debasement. 

During the reign of Conatantine, Christianity had 
made a rapid advance, no doubt in the number hdw hi dk 
of its proselytes, as well as in its external me empire, 
position. It was not yet the established religion of the 
empire. It did not as yet stand forward as the new 
religion adapted to the new order of things, as a part of 
the great simultaneous change, which gave to the Koman 
world a new capital, a new system of government, and, 
in some important instances, a new jurisprudence. Yet 
having sprung up at once, under the royal favour, to a 
perfect equality with the prevailing Heathenism, the 
mere manifestation of that favour, where the antagonistic 
religion hung so loose upon the minds of men, gave it 
much of the power and authority of a dominant faith. 
The religion of the Emperor would soon become that of 
the court ; and, by somewhat slower degrees, that of the 
empire. At present, however, as we have seen, little 
open aggression took place upon Paganism. Tlie few 
temples which were closed were insulated cases, and 
condemned as offensive to public morality. In general, 
the edifices stood in all their former majesty ; for as yet 
the ordinary process of dissolution, from neglect or decay, 
could have produced little effect. The difference was, 
that the Christian churches began to assume a more 
stately and imposing form. In the new capital, they 
gnrpafised in grandevir, and probably in decoration, the 



393 LAWS RELATING TO SUNDAYS. Booi Uli 



Pagan temples which belonged to old Byzantium. The 
immunities granted to the Christian clergy only placed 
tliem on the same level with the Pagan priesthood. 
The pontifical ofBces were still held by tlie distinguished 
men of the state : the Emperor himself was long the 
chief pontiff; but the religious office had become a kind 
of appendage to the temporal dignity. Tlie Christian. 
prelates were constantly admitted, in virtue of their 
office, to the imperial presence. 

On the state of society at large, on its different forma 
KBtttoc and gradations, little impression had as yet 
Miahmtaiof been made by Christianity. The Christians 
en iBdttj. were still a separate people ; Christian litera- 
ture was exclusively religious, and addressed, excepting 
in its apologies, or its published exhortations against 
Paganism, to the initiate alone. Its language would bet 
unintelligible to those uninstrucf«d in Christiau theo- 
logy. Yet the general legislation of Constantine, inde- 
pendent of those edicts which concerned the Christian 
community, bears some evidence of the silent under- 
UKsn-iiUng working of Christian opinion. The rescript, 
tuSnndwB. indeed, for the religious obse-rranee of the 
Sunday, which enjoined the suspension of all publio 
business and private labour, except that of agriculture, 
was enacted, according to the apparent terms of the 
decree, for the whole Roman empire, Yet^ unless wa 
had direct proof, that the decree set forth the Christian 
reason for the sanctity of the day, it may be doubted 
whether the act woiild not be received by the greater 
part of the empire, aa merely adding one more festival 
to the Fasti of the empire, as proceeding entirely from 
the will of the Emperor, or even grounded on his au- 
■Jiority BB Supreme Pontiff, by which he had the plerarj 



1 

I 



I 



I 



r 



LAWS TENDIKG TO HUMANITl'. o93 

power of appointing hoIy-dayB." In fact, as we have 
before obBerved, the day of the Sun would be willingly 
iiallowed by almost all the Pagan world, eapeciaUy that 
part which had admitted any tendency towards the 
Oriental theology. 

Where the legislation of Conatantine was of a humaner 
cast, it would be unjust not to admit the influ- ^.^ lename 
ence of Christian opinions, spreading even "''«™"'"J'- 
beyond the immediate circle of the Christian com- 
munity, as at least a conourrent cause of the improve- 
ment. In one remarkable instance, there is direct 
authority that a certain measure was adopted by the 
advice of an influential Christian, During the period 
of anarchy and confusion which preceded the universal 
empire of Constantine, the misery had been so great, 
particularly in Africa and Italy, that the sale of infanta 
for slaves, their exposure, and even infanticide, had 
become fearfully common, Constantine issued an edictj 
in which he declared that the Emperor should be con- 
sidered the father of all such children. It was a cruelty, 
irreconcileable with the spirit of the times, to permit 
any subjects of the empire to perish of starvation, or to 
be reduced to any unworthy action by actual hunger- 
Funds were assigned for the food and clothing of such 
children as the parents should declare themselves unable 
to support) partly on the imperial revenues, partly on 
the revenues of the neighbouring cities. As this measure 
did not prevent the sale of children, parents were de- 
clared incapable of reclaiming children thus sold, unless 
they paid a reasonable price for their enfranchisement.' 




804 LAWS COSCERXIXC SLAVERY. Book HI, 

ChilrlreD Mhjch bad been exposed could not be reclaiined 
froin those who bad received them into their families, 
whether by adoption or as slaves. \Miatever may have 
been the wisdom, the humanity of tliese ordinances ia 
unquestionable. They are suid to liave been issaed by 
the advice of Lactantius, to whom had been entrusted 
the education of Crispus, the eon of Constantine. 

Child-stealing, for the purpose of selling the children 
conten,i„g for slaves, was visited with a penalty, which 
"•"''■ both in its nature and barbarity retained the 
stamp of the old Roman manners. The criminal 
condemned to the amphitheatre, either to be devoured 
by wild beasts or exhibited as a gladiator. Christianity 
had not as yet allayed the passion for these savage 
amusements of the Roman people; yet, in conjunction 
with tlie somewhat milder manners of the East, it ex- 
cluded gladifttorial eshibitions from the new capital. 
The Grecian amusements of the theatre and of the 
chariot-race satisfied the populace of Constantinople, 
Whatever might be the improved condition of the slaves 
within the Christian community, the tone of legislation 
preserves the same broad and distinct line of demarca- 
tion between the two classes of society. The master, 
indeed, was deprived of the arbitrary power of life and 
death. The death of a slave under torture, or any 
excessive severity of punishment, was punishable as 
homicide ; but if he died under a vioderate chastisement, 
the master was not responsible. In the distribution of 
the royal domains, care was to be taken not to divide 
the families of the prsedial slaves. It is a cruelty, says 
the law, to separate parents and children, brothers and 
sisters, husbands and wives,"* But marriages of free 

tCod, Then 
chola quMtian 



i 



r 



AGAIKST RAVE AND ABDUCTION, 39S 

women with slaTes were punishable with death ; the 
children of aueh unions were indeed free, but could not 
inherit their mothers' property. The person of dignity 
and station, who Lad children by a marriitge contracted 
with a woman of base condition, could not make a testa- 
ment in their favour ; even purchases made in their 
names or for their beneiit, might be claimed by the 
legitimate heirs. The base condition comprehended not 
only slaves but freed women, actresses, tavern-keepers, 
and their daughters, as well as those of courtezans or 
gladiators. Slaves who were concerned in the seduction 
of their masters' children were to be burned alive with- 
out distinction of sex. The barbarity of this punish- 
ment rather proves the savage manners of the time 
than the inferior condition of the slave ; for the receivers 
of the royal domains who were convicted of depredation 
or fiaud were eondemued to the same penalty.' 

It can scarcely be doubted that the stricter moral 
tone of C'onstantine's legislation more or less Liwigamsi 
remotely emanated from Christianity. The bMocmqu. 
laws against rape and seduction were framed with so 
much ngour, as probably to make their general execu- 
tion dilBcult, if not impracticable.' The ravisher had 
before escaped with impunity ; if the injured party did 
not prosecute him for his crime, she had the right of 
demanding reparation by marriaga By the law of 



Wallon, Bur I'Eaiilanige dan* I'Ant 
quitf. 

" " , which wna pei 
fcrmed undpr Ihs snnction of a ral 
[iaus ceremoDtfll in [ho HiMltht 

the chu]Xh : tin iifTgj might manamit 
their eLbvck, in (ha pievnce of the 
chuiuh. Cod. Theod. iv. 7. 1. 




•9fl LAWS AGAIKST EATE AND AEDUCTION. Bowi III,- 

Constantine, the consent of the female made her tui 
accomplice in the erime ; she was amenable to the same 
penalty. What that penalty was is not quite clear, bat 
it seems that the ravisher was exposed to the wild beasts 
in the amphitheatre. Even where the female had suf- 
fered forcible abduction, she had to acquit herself of all 
suspicion of consent, either from levity of manoer, or 
want of proper vigilance. Tliose pests of society, the 
pandars, who abused the confidence of parents, and 
made a traffic of the virtue of their daughters, were in 
the same spirit condemned to a punishment so horrible, 
as, no doubt, moi'e frequently to ensure their impunity : 
melted lead was to be poured down their throats. Pa- 
rents who did not prosecute such offences were banished, 
and their property confiscated. It ia not, liowever, so 
much the severity of the punishments, indicating a 
stronger abhorrence of the crime, ks the eocial and 
moral evils of which it took cognisance, which shows 
the remoter workings of a sterner moral principle. A 
religion which requires of its followers a strict, as re- 
gards the Christianity of this period, it may be said an 
ascetic rigour, desires to enforce on the mass of mankind 
by the power of the law that which it cannot effect by 
the more legitimate and permanent means of moral 
influence. In a small community where the law is the 
echo of the public sentiment, or where it rests on an 
acknowledged divine authority, it may advance further 
into the province of morality, and extend its provisions 
Law yi^iiut iiito every relation of society. The Mosaic law, 
•iioitsry. which, simultaneously with the Christian spirit, 
began to enter into the legislation of the Christian 
emperors, in its fearful penalties imposed upon the 
illicit commerce of the sexes, concurred with the rigor- 
ons jealousy of the Asiatic tribes of that region con- 



r 



COSCEHSrao DIVORCE. 



397 



cerniag the honour of their women. But when the lawg 
of Constantine suddenly classed the crime of adultery 
with those of poison and aseassination, and declared it a 
capital offence, it may be doubted whether any improve- 
ment ensued, or was likely to ensue, in the public 
morals. Uoless Christianity hod already greatly cor- 
rected the general licentiousness of the Eoman world, 
not merely within but without ita pale, it may safely be 
affirmed that the general and impartial execution of 
such a statute was impossible.' The severity conwminB 
of the law against the breach of conjugal ^^'"'™- 
fidelity was accompanied with strong restrictions upon 
the facility of divorce. Three crimes alone, in the bus- 
band, justified the wife in demanding a legal separa- 
tion — homicide, poisoning, or the violation of sepulchres. 
This latter crime was, apparently, very frequent, and 
looked upon with great abhurrence." In these cases, 
tlie wife recovered her dowry ; if she separated for any 
other cause, she forfeited aU to a single needle, and was 
liable to perpetual banishment.' The husband, in order 
to obtain a divorce, must convict his wife of poisoning, 
adultery, or keeping notoriously infamous company. In 
all other cases, he restored the whole of the dowry. If 
he married again, the former wife, thus illegally cast oS*, 
might cl^m his whole property, and even the dowry of 



f It niny be ailmittal, Bt ■ddh 

[dence of the InelGciencv of this law, 

It in th« oat I'ogQ the ))etia1tie! 

:Tt ailunllj' iiggravBt«d. The oimi- 

1) weie t»Ddeniti«il either to be 

raed alive, or sfned up ia a cack 

il out into the Gen. 

■ Code.. Theodob. iii. 16, 1. 

> The Uw ol' CoDBtaDtioe aud Coa- 

ins, which iHBile intetiniitriage with 



a niece a capital crinie, ie supposed by 
Godefny to hate been a local att, 
directed agnimt the laiitf of Syrinn 
murBle in tliia nepecC Cod. Theod. 
iii. 12, 1. The law issued at Rome, 
prohibiting intfrro'irriage with foe 
lister of « 'lecensed wife, annulled th/. 
marriage, nod tiastnrdiiied thei:hilii]eii. 
Ui. IS, 2. 



i93 LAWS FAVOURABLE TO CELIBACT. Book III. 

the second wife. These impediments to the dissolution 
of the marrittge tie, the facility of which experience and 
reason concur in denouncing as deatructive of social 
virtue and of domeetio happiness, with penalties affect- 
ing the property rather than the person, were more 
likely to have a favourable and extonaive operation than 
the sanguinary proscription of adultery. Marriage being 
a'cidl contract in the Eomaii world, the state had full 
right to regulate the stability and the terms of the com- 
pact. In other respects, in which the jurisprudence 
assumed a liigher tone, Christianity, I should conceive, 
was far more influential through its religious persuasive- 
ness, than by tlie rigour which it thus impressed upon 
j^^i„i the laws of the empii-e. That nameless crime, 
pnikruiy. jj^g universal disgrace of Greek and Itoman 
society, was far more effeetively repressed by the ab- 
horrence infused iato the public sentiment by the pure 
religion of the Gospel, than by the penalty of death, 
enacted by statute against the offence. Another law of 
unqneetionable humanity, and, probably, of more ex- 
uakiDgor tensive operation, prohibited the making of 
mnudit eunuchs. The slave who had suffered this 
mutilation might at once claim his freedom.' 

Perhaps the greatest evidence of the secret aggression 
Lun itmai- of Christianity, or rather, in my opinion, of the 
oeutacy. foreign Asiatic principle which wag now com- 
pletely interwoven witli Christianity, was the gradual 
relaxation of the laws unfavourable to celibacy. TIio 
Roman jurisprudence bad always proceeded on the 
principle of encouraging the multiplication of citizens, 
particularly in the higher orders, which, from varioua 



I 



r 



BURUL OF COJJSTANTIKE. 399 

causes, espet'ially the general Kcentiousness under the 
later republic and the early empire, were in danger ol' 
becoming extinct. The parent of many children waa a 
public benefactor, the unmarried man a useless burden,, 
if not a traitor, to the well-being of the state. The small 
establishment of the vestal virgins was evidently the 
remains of an older religion, inconsistent with the gene- 
ral sentiment and manners of Eome. 

On this point the encroachment of Christianity waa 
elow and difficult. The only public indication of its 
influence waa the relaxation of the Papia Poppiean law. 
This statute enforced certain disabilities on those who 
were unmarried, or without children by their mai-riage, 
at the age of twenty-five. The former could only 
inherit from their neai-est relations ; the latter obtained 
only the tenth of any inheritance which might devolve 
on their wives, the moiety of property devisod. to them 
by will. The forfeiture went to the public treasury, 
and waa a considerable source of profit. Constautine 
attempted to harmonise the two conflicting principles. 
He removed the disqualifications on celibacy, but he 
left the statute iu force against married persons who 
were without children. In more manifest deference to 
Christiftuity, he extended the privilege hitherto confined 
to the vestal virgins of making their will, and that before 
the usual age appointed by the law, to all who had 
made a religious vow of celibacy. 

Even after his death, both religions vied, as it were, 
for Constantine, He received with impartial euruur 
favour the honours of both. The first Christian '^"""■°""- 
emperor was deified by the Pagans, in a later period he 
was worshipped as a saint by part of the Christian church. 
On the same medal appears his title of " God," with the 
monogram, the sacred symbol of Christianity ; in an- 



400 CONVERSIO^ UF ^THIUI'IA. 

other he is seated in the chariot of the Sun, in a car^' 
drawo hj four horses, with a hand stretched forth iroin 
the clouds to raise him to Heaven." But to show 
respect at once to the Emperor and to the Christian 
Apostle, contraiy to the rigid usage, which forbade any 
burial to take place \vithin the city, Constantine was 
interred in the porch of the church dedicated to the 
Ajwstles. Constautius did great honour (in Chrysoe- 
tom'a opinion) to bis imperial father, by bnryiug biin in 
the Fisherman's Porch.' 

During the reign of Constantine, Christianity con- 
ConwrBim tinuod to advauce beyond the borders of the 
ci .tiMopta. j^iuan empire, and, in some degree, to indem- 
nify herself for the losses which she sustained in the 
kingdom of Persia. The Ethiopians appear to have 
attained some degree of civilisation ; a considerable part 
of the Aiabiao oominerce was kept up with tha other 
side of the Red Sea, through the port of Adutis ; and 
Greek letters appear, from inscriptions recently disco- 
vered,'' to have made considerable progress among this 
barbarous people. The Eomans called this conntry, 
with that of the Homerites on the other side of the Ara- 
bian gulph, by the vague name of the nearer India. 
Travellers were by no means uncommon in these times, 
whether for purposes of trade, or, following the tradi- 
tional history of the ancient sages, from the more disin- 



I 




CHAP. IV* 



CONVERSION OF ETHIOPIA. 



401 



terested desire of knowledge. Metrodorus, a philosopher, 
had extended his travels throughout this region,^ and, 
on his return, the account of his adventures induced 
another person of the same class, Meropius of Tyre, to 
visit the same regions. Meropius was accompanied by 
two youths, Edesius and Frumentius. Meropius, with 
most of his followers, fell in a massacre, arising out of 
some sudden interruption of the peace between the 
Ethiopians and the Bomans. Edesius and Frumentius 
were spared on account of their youth. They were taken 
into the service of the King, and gradually rose, till one 
became the royal cup-bearer ; the other, the adminis- 
trator of the royal finances. The King died soon after 
they had been elevated to these high distinctions, and 
bequeathed their liberty to the strangers. The queen 



* The same Metrodorus afterwai-ds 
made a journey into further India; 
his object was to visit the Brahmins, 
to examine their religious tenets and 
practices. Metrodorus instinicted the 
Indians in the construction of water- 
mills and baths. In their gratitude, 
they opened to him the inmost sanc- 
tuary of their temples. But the virtue 
of the philosopher Metrodorus, was 
not proof against the gorgeous trea^ 
sures which dazzled his eyes ; he stole 
a great quantity of pearls, and other 
jewels; others, he said that he had 
i-eceived as a present to Gonstantine 
from the King of India. He appeared 
in Constantinople. The Emperor re- 
ceived, with the highest satisfitction, 
those magnificent gifts which Metro- 
dorus presented in lus own name. 
But Metrodorus complained that his 
offerings would have been far. more 
sumptuous if he had not been attacked 

VOL. II. 



on his way through Persia, contrary 
to the spirit of the existing peace 
between the empires, and plundered of 
great part of his treasures. Gonstan- 
tine, it is said, wrote an indignant 
remonstrance to the King of Persia. 
This story is emious, as it shows the 
connection kept up by traders and 
travellers with the further East, which 
accounts for the allusions to Indian 
tenets and usages in the Christian, as 
well as the Pagan, writers of the 
time. It rests on the late authority 
of Cedrenus (t. i. p. 295), but is 
confirmed by a passage of Ammianus 
Marcellinus, who, however, places it 
in the reign of Constautius. Sed 
Constantium ardores Parthicos suc- 
cendisse, cum Metrodori mendaciis 
avidius acquiesdt, Iziv. c. 4. Com- 
pare St. Mai*tin's additions to Le B«au^ 
i. 343. 

2 D 



402 CONVERSION OF JETHIOPIA. Book IH^ J 

entreated them to continue their valnable aerrices till j 
her son shotdd attain to full age. The Itomans com* J 
plied with her request, and the supreme gOYermnent obi 
the kingdom of Ethiopia was administered by these twotl 
Romans, but the chief post was occupied by Frumentins; T 
Of the causes which disposed the mind of Frumentins t(W i 
wards Christianity we know nothing ; he is represented 1 
as seized with an eager desire of becoming acquainted ^ 
with its tenets, and anxiously inquiring whether any 
Christians existed in the country, or could be found 
among the Roman travellers who visited it,* It is more 
probable, since there were so many Jews, both on the 
Arabian and the African side of the gulf, that some 
earlier knowledge of Christianity had spread into these 
regions. But it was embraced with ardour by Fmmen- 
tins; he built a church, and converted many of the \ 
people. When the 3'oiiiig ting came of age, notwith- J 
standing the remonstrances of the prince and his mother, j 
Frumentius and his companion returned to their nativs 1 
country. Frumentius passed through Alexandria, and^J 
having communicated to Athanasius the happy begin^ J 
ning3 of the Gospel in that wild region, the influence ofi 1 
that commanding prelate induced him to accept the] 
mission of the Apostle of India. He was consecrate^i,! 
Bishop of Axum by the Alexandrian prelate, and thatti 
see was always considered to owe allegiance to th(^J 
patriarchate of Alexandria. The preaching of Fru- 
mentius was said to have been eminently successful, not- 
merely among the Ethiopians, but also among the 
neighbouring tribes of Nubians and Blemmyes. Hia 



CHAP. IV. OF THE IBERIANS. 403 

name is still reverenced as the first of the Ethiopian 
pontiffs. But probably in no country did Christianity 
so soon degenerate into a mere form of doctrine ; the 
wild inhabitants of these regions sank downward rather 
than ascended in the scale of civilisation ; and the fruits 
of Christianity, humanity, and knowledge, were stifled 
amid the conflicts of savage tribes, by ferocious manners, 
and less frequent in1;era>urse with more cultivated 
nations.* 

The conversion of the Iberians^ was the work of a 
holy virgin. Nino was among the Armenian of the 
maidens who fled from the persecutions of the ^*^^^**«^ 
Persians, and found refuge among the warlike nation of 
Iberia, the modem Georgia^ Her seclusion, her fasting, 
and constant prayers, excited the wonder of these fierce 
warriors. Two cures which she is said to have wrought, 
one on the wife of the king, still further directed the 
attention of the people to the marvellous stranger. The 
grateful queen became a convert to Christianity. Mih- 
ran, the king, still wavered between the awe of his an- 
ident deities, the fear of his subjects, and his inclination 
to the new and wonder-working faith. One day when 
he was hunting in a thick and intricate wood, he was 
enveloped in a sudden and impenetrable mist Alone, 
separated from his companions, his awe-struck mind 
thought of the Christians' God ; he determined to em- 
brace the Christian faith. On a sudden the mist cleared 
off, the light shone gloriously down, and in this natural 
image the king beheld the confirmation of the light of 
truth spread abroad within his soul. After much oppo- 



* Compaiie Stanley, Enstern Church, 
12, 14, and in other passagfs.^ 
' Socrates, i. 20 Sozomeu, ii. c. 7 ; 



Rufin. z. 10 ; Tbeodoret, i. 24 ; Motea 
Chcmn, Lib. ii. & S3 ; Klaproth, 
Travela in Georpa. 

2 D 2 



<04 



CONVEBSION OF THE IBERIANS. 



BooKlH. 



sition, the temple of the great god Aramazd (the Ormuzd 
of the Persian system) was levelled with the earth. A 
cross was erected upon its ruins by the triumphant Nino, 
which was long worshipped as the palladium of the king« 
dom.* Wonders attended on the construction of the 
first Christian church. An obstinate pillar refused to 
risC) an3 defied the utmost mechanical skill of the 
people to force it from its oblique and pendant position. 
The holy virgin passed the night in prayer. On the 
morning the pillar rose majestically of its own accord, 
and stood upright upon its pedestal. The wondering 
people burst into acclamations of praise to the Chris* 
tians' God, and generally embraced the faith. The king 
of Iberia entered into an alliance with Constantine, 
who sent him valuable presents, and a Christian bishop. 
Eustathius: it is said, the deposed patriarch of An* 
tioch, undertook this mission by the command of the 
Emperor ; and Iberia was thus secured to the Christian 
faith. 



' In 1801 this crois, or that which 
pei'petual tradition aoconnted tm the 
identical crca; , was ramored to }*«tAr> 



burg by Prince Bagration. It wa« 
restored, to the great joy of the natioa, 
by order of the En^peror Alexvodu*. - 



r 



IHE SONS OF CONSTANTIME. 



CHAPTER V. 



Chrudaoitif m 



IT the BOoa of Conatanljne. 



If Ohristtanity was making such rapid progress in the 
conquest of the world, the world was making Acrwiionot 
fearful reprisala on Christianity. By enlisting onruuntuie. 
new passions and interests in its cause, religion sur- 
rendered ilaelf to an inaeparable feUowship with those 
passions and interests. The more it mingles with the 
tide of himian affairs, the more tiirbid becomes the 
stream of Christian history. In the intoxication of 
power, the Christian, like ordinary men, forgot his 
original character ; and the religion of Jesus, instead of 
diffusing peace and happiness through society, might, 
to the superficial observer of human afTairs, seem intro- 
duced only as a new element of discord and misery into 
the society of man. 

The Christian emperor dies ; he is succeeded by hia 
sons, educated in the faith of the Gospel. The first act 
of the new reign is the murder of one of the brothers, 
and of the nephews of the deceased sovereign, who were 
guilty of being named in the will of Constantine as 
joint heirs to the empire. Thb act, indeed, was that of 
a ferocious soldiery, though the memory of Constantins 
is not free from the suspicion, at least of connivance in 
these bloody deeds. Christianity appears only in a 
favourable light as interposing between the assassins 
snd their victim. Marcus, Bishop of Arethnsa, saved 
on from his enemies: the future apostate was con 



*06 THE SOKS OF CONSIANTINE. Book IIL 

cealed under the altar of the church. Yet, on th© 
accession of the sods of Constantine, to the causes ot' 
fraternal animosity usual on the division of a kingdom 1 
Reiirt™ between several brothers, was added that of I 
otih'tm religioua hostility. The two Emperors (for 
Moi. they were speedily reduced to two) placed 

themselvea at the head of the two contending parties in 
Christianity. The weak and voluptuous Constana ad- 
hered with inflexible firmness to the cause of Athana- 
aius; the no less weak and tyrannical ConatautiuB, to 
that of Arianisni. The East was arrayed against the 
West. At Borne, at Alexandria, at Sardica, and, aftei^ 
wards, at Aries and Milan, Athanasius was triumphantly 
acquitted ; at Antioch, at Philippopolis, and finally at 
Kimini, he was condemned with almost equal unanimity. 
Even within the church iteelf, tlie distribution of the 
auperior dignities became an object of fatal ambition and 
strife. The streets of Alexandria and of Coustantinople 
were deluged with blood by the partisans of rival 
bishops. In the latter, an officer of high distinction, 
sent by the Emperor to quell the tumult, was slain, and 
his body treated with the utmost indignity by the 
infuriated populace. 

To dissemble or to di^uise these melancholy facts, is 
alike inconsistent with Christian truth and wisdom. In 
some degree they are acc'Oimted for by the proverbial 
reproach against historj', that it is the record of human 
foUy and crime ; and history, when the world became 
impregnated with Christianity, did not at once assume a 
higher office. In fact, it extends its view only over the 
surface of society, below which, in general, lie human 
virtue and happiness. This would be especially the case 
with regard to Christianity, whether it withdi-sw from 
thti sight of man, according to the monastic interprets- 



i 



r 



SLOW PROGRESS OF MORAL IKFLUENCE. 407 

tion of ifci precepts, into solitary coranmiiion with the 
Peity ; or, in its more genuine spirit, was content with 
exercising its Immanising influence in the more remote 
and obscure quarters of the general social system. 

Even the annals of the Church take little notice of 
those cities where tlie Christian episcopate passed calmly 
down through a succession of pious and heneficent pre- 
lates, who lived and died in the undisturbed attachment 
and veneration of their Christian disciples, and respected 
by the hostile Pagans; men whose noiseless course of 
beneficence was constantly dimiuishing llie mass of 
.human misery, and improving the social, the moral, as 
well as the religious condition of mankind. But an 
election contested with violence, or a feud which divided 
a city into hostile parties, arrested the general attention, 
■and was perpetuated in the records, at first of the 
€lmrcli, afterwards of the Empire. 

But, in fact, the theological opinions of Christianity 
naturally made more rapid progress than its Mo™imim 
moral influence. The former had only to over- JjlJJ^^ 
power the resistance of a religion which had """""=°- 
already lost its hold upon the mind, or a philosophy too 
speculative for ordinary understandings and too unaatis- 
factory for the more curious and enquiring ; they had only 
to enter, as it wei-e, into a vacant ])laeo in the miud of 
man. But the moral influence had to contest, not only 
with the natural dispositions of man, but wilh the bar- 
barism and depraved manners of ages. While, then, 
the religion of the world underwent a total change ; 
while the Church rose on the ruins of the temple, and 
the pontifical establishment of Paganism became gradu- 
ally extinct, or aufl'ered violent suppression ; the moral 
revolution was far more slow and far less complete. 
Wilh a large portion of mankind, it must be admitted 



<08 



MORAL MOEE SLOW 



that the religion itself was Pagauism under anotli^ 
form and with different appellations ; with another 
part, it was the religion passively received without any 
change in the moral sentiments or habits ; with a third, 
and, perhaps, the more considerable part, there waa a 
transfer of the passions and the intellectual activity to a 
new cause.' They were completely identified with 
Ohristianity, and to a certain degree actuated by its 
principles, but they did not apprehend the beautiful 
harmony which subsists between its doctrines and its 
moral perfection. Its dogmatic purity was the sole 
engroscing subject ; the unity of doctrine superseded 
and obscured all other considerations, even of that 
sublimer unity of principles and effects, of the loftiest 
views of the divine nature with the purest conceptions 
of human virtue. Faith not only overjiowered, but dis- 
carded from her fellowship, Love and Peace. Every- 
where there waa exaggeration of one of the constituent 
elements of Christianity ; that exaggeration which is 
the inevitable consequence of a strong impulse upon the 
human mind. Wherever men feel strongly, they act 
violently. The more speculative Christiana, therefore, 
who were more inclined, in the deep and somewhat 
selfish solicitude for their own salvation, to isolate them- 
selves from the infected mass of manlcind, pressed into 
the extreme of asceticism ; the more practical, who 
were earnest in the desire of disseminating the blessii^ 
of religion throughout society, scrupled little to press 
into their service whatever might advance their cause. 



} 



• "If," Bflid the dying Binhop of 
Constantinople, "VDii would hnve ioi' 

Ton bj the eounple nf his lift, and 
improTc joo by the purity of his pre- 



scpts. choa 



Pnul 1 if B niin rencd 
of the world, anil abla 
to mriininin the interrits of the nli. 
gion, your Bufllrngn muJt be given tc 
Mnoedonim." Socr. E. G ii. 6, 



r 



Chap. V. THAN KELIGIODS REVOLUTION. 406 

With both extremes, the dogmatical part of the religion 
predominated. 'Ihe monliish believer imposed the same 
Beverity upon the aberrations of the mind as upon the 
appetites of the body ; and, in general, those who are 
severe to themselvea, are both disposed, and think them- 
selvea entitled, to enforce the same severity on others. 
The other, as his sphere became more extensive, was 
satisfied with an adhesion to the Christian creed, instead 
of that total change of life demanded of the early Chris- 
tian, and watched over with such jealous vigilance by 
the mutual superintendence of a small society. The 
creed, thus become the sole test, was enforced with all 
the passion of intense zeal, and guarded with the most 
subtle and scrupulous jealousy. In proportion to the 
admitted importance of the creed, men became mote 
sternly and exclusively wedded to their opinions. Thus 
an antagonistio principle of fixelusiveneSB co-exieted 
with the most comprehensive ambition. While they 
swept in converts indiscriminately from the palace and 
the public street; while the Emperor and the lowest of 
the populace were alike admitted on little more than 
the open profession of allegiance, they were satisfied if 
the allegiance in this respect was blind and complete. 
Hence a far larger admixture of human passions and of 
the common vulgar incentives of action was infused into 
the expanding Christian body. Men became Christians, 
orthodox Christians, with little sacrifice of that which 
Christianity aimed chiefly to extirpate. Yet, after all, 
this imperfect view of Christianity had probably some 
effect in concentrating the Christian community, and 
holding it together by a new and more indissoluble bond. 
The world divided into two parties. Though the shades 
of Arianism, perhaps, if strictly decomposed, of Trini- 
tarianism, were countless as the varying powers of con- 



no ATHANASinS. .Book IU 

€eption or expression in man, yet they were soon 
consolidated into two compact masses. The semi- 
Arians, who approximated so closely to the Nicene 
creed, were forced back into the main body. Their fine 
<iistinction8 were not seized by their adversaries, or by 
the general understanding of the Christians. The bold 
and decisive definitiveness of the Athanasian doctrine 
admitted less discretion ; and no doubt, though political 
vicissitudes had some influence on the final establish- 
ment of their doctrines, the more illiterate and less 
imaginative West was predisposed to the Athanasian 
opinions by its natural repugnance to the more vague 
and dubious theory. All, however, were enrolled 
under one or the other standard, and the party which 
triumphed, eventually would rule the whole Christian 
world. 

Even the feuds of Christiam'ty at this period, though 
with the few more dispassionate and reasoning of the 
Pagans they might retard its progress, in some re- 
spects contributed to its advancement; they assisted 
in breaking up that torpid stagnation which brooded 
over the general mind. It gave a new object of ex- 
.citement to the popular feeling. The ferocious and 
ignorant populace of the large cities, which found a 
new aliment in Christian faction for their mutinous 
and sanguinary outbursts of turbulence, had almost 
been better left to sleep on in the passive and undo- 
structive quiet of Pagan indifference. They were dan- 
gerous allies, more than dangerous — fatal to the purity 
.of the Gospel. 

Athanasius stands out as the prominent character of 
the period in the history, not merely of Chris- 
tianity, but of the world. That history is one 
long controversy, the life of Athanasius one unwearied 



ATHASA81U8. 



411 



And incessant strife.'' It is neither the serene course 
of a. being elevated by his rehgion above the carea and 
tumults of ordinary life, nor the restless activity ot one 
perpetually employed in a conflict with the ignorance, 
vice, and misery of an unconverted people. Tet even 
now (so completely has this polemic spirit become 
incorporated with Christianity) the memory of Athana- 
sius is regarded by many wise and good men with 
reverence, which, in Catholic countries, is actual adora- 
tion, in Protestant, approaches towards it" It is impos- 
sible, indeed, not to admire the force of intellect which he 
centered on this minute point of theology, Ms intrepidity, 
his constancy ; but had he not the power to allay the 
feiid which his inexorable spirit tended to keep alive f 
Was the term Consubstantialism absolutely essential to 
Christianity? If a somewhat wider creed had been 
accepted, would not the truth at least as soon and as 
generally have prevailed ? Could not the commanding 
or persnosive voice of Christianity have awed or charmed 
the troubled waters to peace ? 

But Athanasius, in exile, would consent to no peace 
which did not prostrate his antagonists before his feet. 
He had obtained complete command over the minds of 
the western Emperors. The demand for his restoration 
Ui his see was not an appeal to the justice, or to the 
iratemal affection of Conatantiua ; it was a question of 
peace or war. Constantius submitted ; he received the 



Grosae ond saae leit (Mairti, 1827J, 
and Meirman'i Atiua. The formei 
is the work of ■ leiy powerful Roman 
Catholic writer, latwnring la sbow 



that all the dtal piinciplee of Chrif 
tiaDit; were iovolred ia thii coatro- 
Tersj; and atatlng me Me of tbe 
question with consuminfltB BbQitf. 
It ia the panegTric of s dutifbl mm on 
him whom he calla the tkther ol 
chordi theology, p. 304. 



1 



*ia CODSCIL AT ASTIOCH. 

prelate, on hia return, witli courtesy, or rather with 
&TOur and dintiactioQ. AthanasiuB now entered Alex- 
^j, 331, andria at the head of a triumphal procession ; 
Jf^J^^„ tbe bishops of his party resumed their sees; 
wAiKM. j^ii Egypt returned to its obedien<;e ; but the 
ij). am. more inflexible Syria still waged the war with 
unallayed activity. A council was held at Tyre, in which 
new chaises were framed against the Alexandrian pre- 
late : — the naurpation of his see in defiance of hia condem- 
nation by a council (the imperial power seema to have 
been treated with no great respect,— for a prelate, it was 
asaerted, deposed by a council, could only be restored by 
the aame authority) ; violence and bloodshed during his 
re-occupation of the see ; and malversation of sums of 
money intended for the poor, but appropriated to hie 
own use. A rival council at Alexandria at once acquitted 
Athanaaius on all tliese points ; asserted his right to the 
aee ; appealed to and avouched the universal rejoicings 
at his restoration, and his rigid administration of the 
funda entrusted to his care.'' 

A more august assembly of Christian prelates met in 
^Mi. the presence of the Emperor at Antioch. 
Anuoch. Ninety bishops celebrated the consecration of 
a splendid edifice, called the Church of Gold. The 
council then entered on the affairs of the church. A 
creed was framed satisfactory to all, except that it seemed 
carefully to exclude the term consubstantial or Homoou- 
sion. The council ratified the decrees of that of Tyre, 
with regard to Athanaaius. It is asserted on hia part 
that the majority had withdrawn to their dioceses before 
the introduction of this question, and that a factious 




r 



Crnr- V. COUNCIL AT AKTIOCH, 413 

minority of forty prelates assumed and abused the autho- 
rity of the coiiEcil. They proceeded to nominate a new 
bishop of Alexandria. Pistus, who had before been 
appointed to the see, was passed over in silence, pro- 
bably as too inactive or unambitious for their purpose. 
Gregory, a native of the wilder region of Cappadocia, 
but educated under Athanaaiua himself in the more 
polished schools of Alexandria, waa invested with this 
important dignity. Alexandria, peacefiiUy reposing, it 
is said, under the parental episcopate of Atbanaeius, 
was suddenly startled by the appearance of an edict, 
signed by the imperial prefect, announcing the degra- 
dation of Athanasius, and the appointment of Gregory, 
Scenes of savage conflict ensued ; the churches were 
taken as it were by storm ; the priests of the Athana- 
siau party were treated with the utmost indignity; 
Tii'gins scourged; every atrocity perpetrated by un- 
bridled multitudes, embittered by every shade of reli- 
gious faction. The Alexandrian populace were always 
ripe for tumult and bloodshed. The Pagans and the 
Jews mingled in the fray, and seized the opportunity, 
no doubt, of shewing their impartial animosity to both 
parties ; though the Arions (and, as the original causes 
of the tumult, not without joatiee) were loaded with tiie 
unpopularity of tliis odious alliance. They arrayed 
themselves on the side of the soldiery appointed to 
execute the decree of the prefect; and the Arian 
bishop is charged, not with much probability, with 
abandoning the churches to tlieir pillage. 

Athanasius fled ; a second time an exile, he took refuge 
in the West. He appeared again at Rome, in aubbdum 
the dominions and under the protection of an "^ "" ''™°- 
orthodox Emperor ; for Constans, who, after the death 
of Constantine, the first protector of Athanasius, had 



414 USUjlPATION OF GBE60BT. Book Ul. 

obtained the larger part of the empire belonging to his 
murdered brother, was no less decided in his support of 
the Nioene opinions. The two great Western prelates. 
Hosius of Cordoya, eminent from his age and character, 
and Julius, bishop of Borne, from the dignity of his see, 
openly espoused his cause. Wherever Athanasins 
resided, — at Alexandria, in Gaul, in Borne, — ^in general 
the devoted clergy, and even the people, adhered with 
unshaken fidelity to his tenets. Such was the com- 
manding dignity of his character, such his power of pro- 
foundly stamping his opinions on the public mind. 

The Arian party, independent of their speculativo 
opinions, cannot be absolved from the unchristian 
heresy of cruelty and revenge. However darkly co- 
loured, we cannot reject the general testimony to their 
acts of violence, wherever they attempted to regain 
csarpatton ^^^ authority. Gregory is said to have at-- 
ofGregwy. tempted to compel bishops, priests, monks, 
and holy virgins, to Christian communion with a pre- 
late thus forced upon them, by every kind of insult and 
outrage; by scourging and beating with clubs: those 
were fortunate who escaped with exile.® But if Alex- 
andria was disturbed by the hostile excesses of the 
Arians, in Constantinople itself the conflicting religious 
parties gave rise to the first of those popular tumults 
which so frequently, in later times, distracted and dis* 
graced the city. Eusebius, formerly Bishop of Nico- 
medi£^ the main support of the Arian party, 
had risen to the episcopacy of the imperial 
city. His enemies reproached the worldly ambition 
which deserted an humbler for a more eminent see; 



« AtlMoas. 0per,| p. 112, 149, 850, 352, and the ecclenastical historians 



f 



QUARREL AT CO\STaMTI.NOPLE. 415 

but they were not lees inclined to contest this important 
post with the utmost activity. At his diiath the Atha- 
naaian party revived the claims of Paul, whom they 
asserted to have been canonically elected and unjustly 
deposed from the see ; the Arians supported BJnaiy 
MaeedoDius, The dispute spread from the Omstimi- 
church into the streets, from the clergy to the m-'iti. 
populace ; blood was shed ; the whole city was in 
arPQS on one part or the other. 

The Emperor was at Autioch ; he commanded Her- 
mogenea, who was appointed to the command of the 
cavalry in Thrace, to pass through Conatautinople, and 
expel the intruder Paul. Hermogenes, at the head of 
his soldiery, advanced to force Paul from the chureh. 
The populace rose ; the soldiera were repelled ; the 
general took refuge in a house, which was instantly set 
on tire ; the maagled body of Hermogeuea viaa dragged 
through the streets, and at length cast into the sea. 
Coustantins heard this extraordinary intelligence at 
Antioch. The contempt of the imperial mandate ; the 
murder of an imperial officer in the contested nomina- 
tion of a bishop, were as yet so new in the annals of 
the world, as to fill him with equal aetoniehment and 
indignation. He mounted his horse, though it was 
winter and the mountain-passes were dangerous and 
difficult with snow ; he hastened with the utmost speed 
to Constantinople. But the deep humiliation of the 
senate and the heads of the people, who prostrated 
themselves at his feet, averted his resentment: the 
people were punished by a diminution of the usual 
largess of com. Paul waa expelled ; but, as though 
some blame adhered to botli the conflicting parties, the 
election of Macedonius was not confirmed, although he 
was allowed to exorcise the episcopal funt'tions. Paul 



il8 TltlSlTAEIAS CONTRO\"ERST. Book IIT. 

retired, first to Thessalonica, subsequently to the conrt 
of Constant. 

The remoter consequences of the AthanasiaQ con- I 
EffwBotita troversy began to develope themselves at thia 1 
^^USl^ early period. The Christianity of the East ] 
laOieWiw, ^^j ^jig ■\^'e3t gradually assumed a dirergent 
and independent character. Though, during a short 
time, the Arianism of the Ostrogothic conquerors g&ve 
a, temporary predominance in Italy to that creed, the J 
West in general submitted, in unenquiring acquiescence, 
to the TiinitarianisiQ of Athanasius, In the East, on I 
the other hand, though the doctrines of Athanaeius' I 
eventually obtained the superiority, the controversy I 
gave birth to a long and unexhausted hne of subordi- 
nate disputes. The East retained its mingled character 
of Oriental speculativeness ai»d Gzeek subtlety. It 
f^uld not abstain from investigating and analysing the 
divine nature, and the relations of Christ and the Holy- 
Ghost to the Supreme Being. Macedouianism, Ne&- 
torianism, Eutychianism, with the fatal disputes re- 
lating to the procession of the Holy Ghost during 
almost the last hours of the Byzantine empire, may be 
considered the lineal descendants of this prolific contn>- 
veray. The opposition between the East and West of 
itaelf tended to increase the authority of that prelate, 
who assumed his acknowledged station as the bead and 
representative of the Western churches. The com- 
manding and popular part taken by the Bishop of 
Home, in iavour of Athanaaius and his doctrines, ena- 
bled him to stand forth in undisputed superiority, as at 
once the chief of the Western episcopate and the 
Aitumiiiu champion of orthodoxy. The age of Hoeius, 
' '"""■ and his residence in a remote province, with- 
dreiv the only competitor for this aiiperiorily. Athaiia* 



CHIP. V. GENEBAL COCXCIL AT BAKDICA. -117 

Bius took up his residence at Rome, and, under the pro- 
tection of the Roman prelate, defied hia adversaries to a 
new contest. Julius summoned the accusers Juiidb- 
of Athanasius to plead the cause before a Kome. 
council in Rome.' The Eastern prelates altogether 
disclaimed his jurisdiction, and rejected his pretensions 
to rejudge the cause of a bishop already condemned by 
the council of Tyre. The answer of Julius is directed 
rather to the justification of Athanasius than to the asser- 
tion of his own authority. The synod of Rome solemnly 
acquitted Athanasius, Paul, and all their syiodm 
adherents. The Western Emperor joined in ^°™' 
the sentiments of his clergy. A second council at 
Milan, in the presence of Constans, confirmed ^,0,343. 
the decree of Rome, Constans proposed to *'""™ 
his brother to convoke a general council of both em- 
pires, A neutral or border ground was chosen for this 
decisive conflict. At Sardica met one hundred aundi ot 
prelates from the West, from the East only *j>. ws-a. 
seventy-five.* Notwithstanding his age and infirmities, 
Hosius travelled from the extremity of the empire : he 
at once took the lead in the assembly ; and it is re- 
markable that the Bishop of Rome, so zealous in the 
cause of Athanasius, alleged an excuse for his absence, 
which may warrant the suspicion that he waa unwilling 
to be obscured in this important scene by the superior 

' JuUns ii far from ansertiDg un^ tion. riwplfaiiiriv oHy rf t-wiimi*^ 
individnal nnthoritj, or pontifical •piijiijt 'louKlif ri kb*' iatiroif 6 
»npreinacj. " Why do yoa olone Bi firt Tpori/ita tSi iy 'Pii^n 
WISle?" "BeoiUK I represent the inKX-rjaias ixoiaris. Socr. E. H. ii. 
^Mons of Uie biihopi of Italf." 15. OFa S) Twr ■w6.rttiy iraSfitorlai 
E[Hit. Julian. AChaosa. Op. 1, 146. ' Ivrip uptHmiaimii Jul t^v &(fa> 

The ecckaiutical hidorianB, how- | TaS Spivov. Soi. E. H. iii. 8. 
«*er, in tits neit (snturf, asHrt that I t Bj »ine becoudI< then were IDi) 
Rome claim«l n tight of ndjudica- , Westirn budiops : 73 Gut«in. 
VOL. II. 2 K 



COUNCIL AT PHILIPPOLIS. 



>oiIB^* 



1 



authority of Hosiua. Five of the Western prelates, 
among whom were Uraaciiis of Singidiinum and Valena 
of Mursa, embraced the Arian cause : the Arians com- 
plained of the defection of two bishops from their body, 
who beti-ayed their secret counnela to their adTerearies.* 
lu all these eouncUa, it appears not to have occmred, 
that, religion being a matter of faith, the suffrages of 
the majority could not posgjbly impose a creed upon n 
conscientious minority. The question had been 
often agitated to expect that it could be placed 
new light 

On matters of fact, the suffrages of the more nn- 
merous party might have weight, in the personal con- 
deniuation, for instance, or the acquittal of Athauasius ; 
but as these suffrages could not convince the under- 
standing of those who voted on the other aide, the 
theological decisions must of necessity be rejected, 
unless the minority would submit likewise to the humi- 
liating confession of insincerity, ignorance, or precipi- 
tancy in judgment.' The Arian minority did not await 
this issue ; having vainly attempted to impede the pro- 
gress of the council, by refusing to sanction the pre- 
sence of persons excommunicated, they seceded to 
RiviLcounqii Philippopolis in Thrace. In these two cities 
P"ii8. sate the rival councils, each asserting itself 

the genuine representative of Christendom, issuing 
decrees, and anathematising their adversaries. The 
Ariana are accused of maintaining their influence, even 
in the East, by acts of great cruelty. In Adrianople, 



^ Concilia L«bbe, vol. iii. AlhaDss. | bf the Wcitiirn. "Noyim legem in- 
contr. Ariin. bo. j trnducute putaienint, at Orixalalea 

> Thg OricDtal biihopa protnted K[riKii[ri ab OocidentiilibaK Judics. 
Kgainit Itu uiumption of lupmnacf | rentor." Apml Hllu. Frtgm. iii. 



r 



RECONCILIATWN WITH ATHANASIUB. 419 

in Alexandria, they enforced submiKsion to their tenets 
by the scourge, and by heavy penaltiee/ 

The Western Coiincil ftt Milan accepted and ratified 
the decrees of the conncil of Sardica, absolving Atha- 
naaius of all criminality, and receiving his doctrines as 
the genuine and exclusive truths of the Gospel. KMonciiia. 
On a sudden, affairs took a new turn; Con- biiuhub-hh 
stautius tlu'ew himself, as it were, at the feet «ji.3is. 
of Athanasius, and in three successive letters entreated 
him to resume his episcopal throne. The Emperor and 
the prelate (who had delayed at first to obey, either 
from fear or from pride, the flattering invitation), met 
at Antioch with mutual espreBsions of respect and cor- 
diahty." Constantius ordered all the accusations against 
Athanasius to be erased from the registers of the city. 
He commended the prelate to the people of Alexan- 
dria in terms of courtly flattery, which harshly contrast 
with his former, as well as with his subsequent, conduct 
to Athanasius, The Arian bishop, Gregory, was dead, 
and Athanasius, amid the universal joy, re-entered the 
city. The bishops crowded from all parts to salute and 
congratulate the prelate who had thug ti-iumphed over 
the malice even of imperial enemies. Incense curletl 
up in all the streets ; the city was brilliantly illu- 
minated. It was an ovation by the admirers of Atha- 
nasius ; it is said to have been a Christian ovation ; 
alms were lavished on the poor ; every house resounded 
with prayer and thanksgiving as if it were a church ; 




: of Morwllui 
tvhnni the Eunbisn party 
tvlwllianieRi, wu 



J20 MESTAN WAE. 

the triumph of Athanasius was completed by the i 
cantation of Ursacius and Valena, two of his : 
powerful antagonists." 

This sudden change in the policy of Constanlioa i 
scarcely explicable upon the alleged i 
It is ascribed to the detection of an infamoi 
conspiracy against one of the Western bishops, depute 
ou a mission to Constantius. The aged prelate ^ 
chained with incontinence, hut the accusation r 
on its inventors. A mail of infamous character, Onaf 
the wild ass, the chief conductor of the plot, o 
detected, avowed himself the agent of Stephen, 1 
Arian bishop of Autiocii. Stephen was igDomimoug 
deposed from his see. Yet this single fact woi 
scarcely have at once estranged the mind of Coiu 
tins from the interests of the Arian party ; his e 
quent conduct when, as Emperor of the whole y 
he could again dare to display his deep-rooted hoetilifg 
to Athanasios, induces the suspicion of pohtical r 
Constantius was about to be embarrassed with tl 
sian war; at this dangerous crisis, the a 
tions of hia brother, not unmingled with wai 
like menace, might enforce the expediency at least c 
temporary reconciliation with Athauaaiua. Alter t 
reconciliation and the triumph of Atbanosius, the p 
tical troubles of three years suspended the religio 
strife. The war of Persia brought some fame to 1 
arms of Constantius ; and in the more honourable c 
n^ii, o( racter, not of the antagonist, but the ave 
cooiuia. i^f jjjg murdered brother, the surviving a 
Constantine again united the East and West imder 1 
sole dominion. Magnentius, who liad usurped 

- Gi^. Nuian. Knc. Albinai, Athanas. Ht.I. Arian. 



C«*r.V. BATTLE OF MUKSA. 421 

Western Empire and mouDted the throne over the 
bloody corpse of the murdered Constana, fell before the 
avenging arm of Constantiua 

The battle of Mursa, if we are to credit a writer 
somewhat more recent, was no less fatal to the interests 
of Athanaaius than to the arms of Magnen- wirwim 
tins." Ursacius and Valens, after their re- *ji.3bi. °^ 
cantatioD, bad relapsed to Arianism. Valens was the 
Bishop of Murso, and in the immediate neighbourhood 
of that town was fought the decisive battle. Constan- 
tius retired with Valens into the principal church, to 
assist with his prayers rather than with his directions or 
personal prowess, the success of his army. Bitticot 
The agouy of his mind may be conceived, '*"'*'■ 
during the long suspense of a conflict on which the 
Bovereignty of the world depended, and in which the 
oonquerore lost more men than the vanquished.'' Valens 
stood or knelt by hie side ; on a sudden, when the 
Emperor was wrought to the highest state of agitation, 
Valens proclaimed the tidings of his complete victory ; 
intelligence communicated to the prelate by an angel 
from heaven. Whether Valens had anticipated the 
event by a bold fiction, or arranged some plan for 
obtaining rapid information, he appeared from that 
time to the Emperor as a man especially favoured by 
Heaven, a prophet, and one of good omen. With 
Valens Arianism reassumed its authority over the 
vacillating mind of Constuntius, 

But either the fears of the Emperor or the caution of 
the Arian party, delayed yet for three or four years 



■ Solpldoi SevBiiu, II. c 54. I llu goda on tbii mameutoui o> 

r Magoeutiui ii mid bj Zouofm, Lib. liii. I. il. p. lli, 17. 
o hare ucrltioed a girl, to fiopitiale \ 



422 



MACELONIUS EEIKSTATED. 



to execute their revenge on AthanaRios. They began 
AjtMi. "i*^ * '^^ illustrious victim. Philip, the 
""'■ prefect of the East, received instructiona to 
pxpel Paul, and to replace Macedoniua on the epiapopal 
throne of Congtantinople. Philip remembered the fata 
of Hermogenea ; he secured himself in the thermse ot J 
Zeuxippus, and summoned the prelate to his preseDceo I 
He then communicated his instructions, and frightened 1 
or persuaded the aged Paul to consent to be secretly 
ftSiS'S''"™' *ra''spo''t®<l ™ ^ '™*t ^^^^ *^® Bosphorus. Tti 
^f'^f^' the morning, Philip appeared in his car, with 
p|*-^ "j™*"- Macedonius by his side in the pontifical attire f I 
<uwd. he drove directly to the church, but the 8ol« 

diers were obliged to hew their way through the densel 
and resisting crowd to the altar. Macedonius passed I 
over the murdered bodies (three thousand are said to I 
have fallen) to the throne of the Christian prelate, f 
Paul was carried in chains first to Emesa, afterwards to 
a wild town hi the deserts about Mount Taurus, He 
had disappeared from the sight of his followers, and it 
is certain that he died in those remote regions. The 
Arians gave out that he died a natural death. It was 
the general belief of the Athanasiaus that his death 
was hastened, and even that he had been strangled by 
the hands of the prefect Philip.' 

But before the decisive blow was struck against 
Athanasius, Constantius endeavoured to subdue the 
West to the Arian opinions. The Emperor, released 
from the dangers of war, occnpied his triumphant leisure 
in Christian controversy. He seemed determined to 
establish bis sole dominion over the religion as well as I 




Chap, V. NEW CHAEGE8 AGAINST ATHANASIUS. 423 

the civil obedience of his Bubjects. The Western 
bishops firmly opposed the conqueror of Mag- codicils of 
nentius. At the councils, first of Arlea and Mtl^.""'' 
afterwards of Milan, they refused to subscribe *■"■ ^^- ^"■ 
the condemnation of Athanasiua, or to communicate with 
the Arians. Laberius, the new Bishop of Eome, p,r«cntfon 
refused the timid and disingenuous compro- bJ^'^J'' 
miae to which his representative atr Aries, Vin- ^"'■ 
tent, deacon of Home, bad agreed — assent to the condem- 
nation of Atbanasiua, i£, at the same time, a decisive 
anathema should be issued against the tenets of Ariua. 
At Milan, the bishops boldly asserted the independence 
of the church upon the empire. The Athanasian party 
forgot, or chose not to remember, that they had unani- 
mously applauded the interference of Constantine, 
when, after the Nicene council, he drove the Artan 
bisbope into exile. Thus it htts always beeu : the sect 
or party which has the civil power in its favour is 
embarrassed with no doubts aa to the legality of its 
interference ; when hostile, it resists as an unwarrant- 
able aggression on its own freedom, that which it has 
not scrupled to employ against its adversaries. 

The new charges against Athanasius were of very 
different degrees of magnitude and probability, s™ cbuEO 
He was accused of exciting the hostility of Aihs^ia.. 
Constans against his brother. The fact that Constans 
bad threatened to reinstate the exiled prelate by force 
of arms might give weight to this charge ; but the sub- 
sequent reconciliation, the gracious reception of Atha- 
nasius by the Emperor, the public edicts in Ms favour, 
had, in all justice, cancelled the guilt, if there were 
really guilt, in this undue influence over the mind of 
Constans. He was accused of treasonable correspondence 
with the usurper Magnentius. Athanasius repelled this 



COC^XIL (IK MILAN. 



(iii.-^ 



ehiirge with natural radignation. He mnst have been a 
monster of ingratitude, worthy a tbousaod deaths, if he 
had leagued with the murderer of his benefactor, ConataQB. 
He defied his enemies to the production of any letters ; 
he demanded the severest investigation, the strictest 
examination, of hia own secjetaries or those of Mngnen- 
tius. The descent is rapid from these serious chaises 
to that of having officiated in a new and splendid^ 
church, the Cfesarean, without the permission of the 
Emperor ; and the exercising a paramount and almoet 
monarchical authority over the churches along tha 
whole course of tlie Nile, even beyond bis legitdmate- 
jurisdiction. The first was strangely construed into 
intentional disrespect to the Emperor ; the latter migbt 
fairly be attributed to the zeal of Athanaaius for the. 
extension of Christianity. Some of these points might' 
appear beyond tlie jurifldiction of an ecclesiastical ttH'- 
bunal ; and in the council of Milan there seems to 
have been an inclination to separate the cause of 
Athanasius from tbnt of bis doctrine. As at Arle^ 
some proposed to abandon the person of Athanasius to 
the will of the Emporor, if a general condemnatioii 
should be passed against the tenets of Arius. 

Three hundred ecclesiastics formed the council <rf' 
conncu of Milan. Few of these were from the East. The 
"""■ Bishop of Kome did not appear in person to 
lead the orthodox party. His chief representative waa 
Lucifer of Cagliari, a man of ability, but of violent 
temper and unguarded language. The Arian faction 
was headed hy Ursacius and Valens, the old adversaries 
of Athanasius, and by the Emperor himself. Constan- 
tius, that the proceedings might take place more imme- 
diately under his own superintendence, adjourned the 
assembly from the church to the palace. This ui> 



CBir. V. COUNCIL OF MILAN. 425 

Beemly intrusion of a layman in the deliberations of tlie 
clergy, unfortunately, was not without precedent Those 
who had proudly hwiled the entrance of Constantine 
into tlie synod of Niceea could not, consistently, depre- 
cate the presence of hia son at Milan. 

The controversy became a personal question betweeji 
the Emperor and his refractory subject. The 
Emperor descended into the arena, and min- 
gled in all the fury of the conflict. Conatautius was 
not content with assuming the supreme place as Em- 
peror, or interfering in the especial province of the 
bishopa^the theological question — he laid claim to 
direct inspiration. He was commissioned by a vision 
from Heaven to restore peace to the afflicted church. 
The scheme of doctrine which he proposed was asserted 
by the Western bishops to be strongly tainted with 
Arianiam. The prudence of the Athanaeian party was 
not equal to their firmness and courage. The obse- 
quious and almost adoring court of the Emperor must 
have stood aghast at the audacity of the ecclesiastical 
synod. Their language was that of vehement invective, 
rather than dignified dissent or calm remonstrance, 
Constantius, concealed behind a curtain, listened to the 
debate ; he heard his own name coupled with that of 
heretic, of Antichrist, His indignation now knew no 
bounds. He proclaimed himself the champion of tlie 
Arian doctrines, and the accuser of Athanasius. Yet 
flatteries, persuasions, bribes, menaces, penalties, exiles, 
were necessary to extort the aasent of the resolute 
assembly. Then they became conscious of the impro- 
priety of a lay Emperor's intrusion into the debates of 
an ecclesiastical synod. They demanded a free council, 
in which the Emperor should neither preside in person 
uor by his commissary. They lifted up their hands, 



FALL OP LIBEarCS — OF HOSICS. 



ftiid entreated the ai^ry ConaUmtiaa not to mingle 
the »Sain of the etate and the chnrch.' Three |welata^ 
Lucifer of Cagliari, Eusebius of Vercellffi, DioDymos cf 
Hilao, Here sent into banishment, to places remote 
from each other, and the most inhospitable r^tgiong of 
the empire. Liberins, the Roman pontiff, rejected willt 
disdain the presents of the Emperor; he resisted """ 
equal firmness his persuasions and his acts of 
lence. 
Though his palace in Rome was carefoUy closed 
p^,o, garrisoned by some of his faithful flock. Lil 
Litartiu. ijeriog was seized at length, and carried 
Milan. He withstood, somewhat contemptuonaly, 
personal entreaties and ailments of the Em 
He rejected with disdain the imperial offers of money 
for his journey, and to!d the Emperor to keep it to pay 
hia army, The same offer was made by Eiisebius the 
eunuch : — " Does a eacrilegioua robber like thee think 
to give alms to me, as to a mendicant ? " Tlie Bishop of 
Rome was exiled to Berbea, a city of Thrace. An Arian 
prelate, Felix, was forced upon the unwilling pity. 

But two years of exile broke the spirit of Liberioa. 
He began to liEten to the advice of the Arian bishop of 
Berbea; the solitude, the cold climate, and the dis- 
comforts of this uncoDgenial region, had more effect 
than the presents or the menaces of the Emperor. 
Pope Liberiua signed the Arian formulary of Sinnimn ; 
he assented to the condemnation of Athanaaius, The 
fti, of fall of the aged Hosius increased the triumph 
HortBi. gf (jjg Arians. 8ome of the Catholic writers 
reproach with undue bitterness the weakness of an old 

' M)|lli iiia/ilayfir t^r 'Ptt/idlinir I luJ Mod. c. 34, 3B. Compnre c. 53 



3 



CONSTANTIUS AT EOME. 427 

man, whose nearer approach to the grave, they assert, 
ought to have confirmed him in hia inalienable fidelity 
to Christ. But even Christianity has no power over 
that mental imbecility which accompanies the decay of 
physical strength : and this act of feebleness ought not, 
for an instant, to be set against the unblemished virtue 
of a whole life. 

Constantius, on his visit to Rome, was astonished by 
an address, presented by some of the principal R-reption of 
females of the city in their most splendid »iKon» 
attire, to entreat the restoration of Liberiiis. The Em- 
peror offered to re-admit Liberius to a co-ordinate 
authority with the Arian bishop, Felix. l"he females 
rejected with indignant disdain this dishonourable com- 
promise ; and when Constantius commanded a similar 
proposition to be publicly read in the circus at the thne 
of games, he was answered by a general shout, " One 
God, one Christ, one bishop." 

Had then the Christians, if this story be true, already 
overcome their averaion to the public games ? or are ne 
to suppose that the whole populace of Rome took an 
intorest in the appointment of the Christian pontiff? 

Athanasius awaited in tranquil dignity the bursting 
Btorm, He had eluded the imperial summons Orfe™ to 
to appear at Milan, upon the plea that it was Auunuitu. 
ambiguous and obscure. Constantins, either from some 
lingering remorse, from reluctance to have his new 
condemnatory ordinances confronted with his favour- 
able, and almost adulatory, testimonies to the inno- 
cence of Athanasius, or from fear lest a religious insur- 
rection in Alexandria and Egypt should embarrass the 
government, and cut off the supplies of com from the 
Eastern capital, refused to issue any written order for 
the deposal and expulsion of Athanasius. He jhose. 



428 TUMULT IN CHXJECH OP ALEXANDRIA. Book Itt 

apparently, to retain the power, if convenient, of dis- 
owning bis emiasaries. Two secretariea were despatched 
with a verbal message, commanding the prehite's abdi- 
cation. Atlianasius treated the imperial oflicera with 
the utmost courtesy ; but respectfully demanded their 
wiitten inatnictionB. A kind of suspension of hostilities 
seems to have been agreed upon, till further instmo 
tions could be obtained from the Emperor. Bat in tJie 
mean time, Syrianus, the duke of the province, was 
drawing the troops fi'om all parts of Libya and Egypt 
to invest and occupy the city. A force of 5000 men 
was thought necessary to depose a peaceable Christian 
Bishop. The great events in the life of Athanasiua, sa 
we have already seen on two occasions, seem, either 
designedly ur of themselves, to take a highly dramatic 
form. It was midnight, and the archbishop, surrounded 
by the more devout of his flock, was performing the 
solemn ceremony, previous to the sacramental service 
of the next day, in the church of St Theonaa. Sud- 
denly the sound of trumpets, the trampling of steeds, 
Tginuitin the clash of arms, the bursting the bolts of 
AicMrfrti. the doors, interrupted the silent devotions of 
the assembly. The archbishop oa his throne, in the 
depth of the choir, on which fell the dim light of the 
lamps, beheld the gleaming arms of the soldiery, as 
they buret into the nave of the church. The arch- 
bishop, as the ominous sounds grew louder, commanded 
the chanting of the 135th (IStitli) Psahn, The choris- 
ters* voices swelled into the solemn strain : — " Oh, give 
thanks unto the Lord, for he is gracious;" the people 
took up the burthen, "For his mercy endureth for 
ever 1 " The clear, full voices of the congregation rose 
over the wild tumult, now vrithout, and now within, 
the I'hurcli. 



r 



GEOEGE OF CAPPADOCIA. 429 

A diflcliarge of arrows commeDced the conflict ; and 
Athanasius calmly exhorted his people to eoDtinue their 
only defensive measures, their prayers to their Almighty 
Protector. Syriamia at the same time ordered the 
Boldiers to advance. The cries of the wounded ; the 
groans of those who were trampled down in attempting 
to force their way out through the soldiery ; the shouts 
of the assailants, mingled in wild and melancholy up- 
roar. But before the soldiers had reached the end of 
the sanctuary, the pious disobedience of his clergy and 
of a body of monks, hurried the aivhbishop by some 
secret passage out of the tumult. His escape appeared 
little less than miraculous to his faithful followers. The 
riches of the altar, the sacred ornaments of the cliurch, 
and even the consecrated virgins, were abandoned to 
the licence of an exasperated soldiery. The Catholics in 
Yain drew up an address to the Emperor, appealing to his 
justice against this sacrilegious outrage ; they suspended 
the arms of tlie soldiery, which had been left on the floor 
of the church, as a reproachful memorial of the violence. 
Constantius confirmed the acts of his officers.' 

The Arians were prepai-ed to replace the deposed 
prelate; their choice fell on another Cappa- Gwrgeot 
docian more savage and unprincipled than the '^h™'"^- 
former one. Constantius commended George of Cappa- 
docia to the people of Alexandria, as a prelate above 
praise, the wisest of teachers, the iittest guide to tlie 
kingdom of heaven. His adversaries paint him in the 
blackest colours ; the son of a fuller, lie had been in 
turns a parasite, a receiver of taxes, a bankrupt. Igno- 
rant of letters, savage in manuers, he was taken up, 



430 GEOKGE OF CAPPADOOIA. Book M 

while leading a vagabond life, by the Ariaii prelate of 
Antioch, and made a priest before he was a ChrisUaiL 
He employed the collections gathered for the poor in 
bribing the eunuchg of the palace. But be possessed, 
no doubt, great worldly ability ; he was without fear and 
without remorse. He entered Alexandria en™oned by 
the troops of Syrianus. His presence let loose the rabid 
violence of party ; the Arians exacted ample vengeance 
for their long period of depression; houses were plun- 
dered ; monasteries burned ; tombs broken open, to 
search for concealed Athanaaians, or for the prelate 
himself, who still eluded their pursuit ; bishops were 
insulted ; vu-gins scourged ; the soldiery encouraged to 
break up every meeting of the Catholics by violence, 
and even by inhuman tortures. The Duke Sebastian, 
at the head of 3000 troops, charged a meeting of the 
Athaoasian Christians. No barbarity was too revolting ; 
they are said to have employed instruments of torture 
to compel them to Christian unity with the Arians ; 
females were scourged with the prickly branches of the 
palm-tree. The Pagans readily transfeiTed tlieir alle- 
giance, so far as allegiance was demanded ; while the 
savage and ignorant among them rejoiced in the occa- 
sion for plunder and cruelty. Others hailed these feuds, 
and almost anticipated the triumphant restoration of 
their own religion. Men, they thought, must grow 
weary and disgusted with a religion productive of so 
much crime, bloodshed, and misery. Echoing back the 
language of the Athanasians, they shouted out — " Long 
life to the Emperor Constantius, and the Arians who 
have abjured Christianity." And Christianity they seem 
to have abjured, though not in the sense intended by 
their adversaries. They had abjured all Christiaa 
humanity, holiness, and peace. 



Chap. V. GEORGE OP CAPPADOCIA. 433 

The avarice of George was equal to his cruelty- 
Exactions were necessary to .mamtain his interest with 
the eunuchs, to whom he owed his promotion. The 
prelate of Alexandria forced himself into the secular 
affairs of the city. He endeavoured to secure a mono- 
poly of the nitron produced in the lake Mareotie, of the 
salt-works, and of the papyrus. He became a manufac- 
tui'er of those painted coffins which were still in nse 
among the Egyptians. Once he was expelled by a 
sudden insurrection of the people, who surrounded tlie 
church, in which he was officiating, and threatened to 
tear him in pieces. He took refuge in the court, which 
was then at Sirmium, and a few months beheld him 
reinstated by the command of his faithful patron the 
Emperor." A reinstated tyrant is, in general, the most 
cruel oppressor ; and, unless pai'ty violence has black- 
ened the chai'acfer of George of Cappadocia beyond 
even its ordinary injustice, the addition of revenge, and 
the liaughty sense of impunity, derived from the im- 
perial protection, to the evil passions already developed 
in bis soul, rendered him a still more intolerable scoui^e 
to the devoted city. 

Everywhere the Athanasiau bishops wero expelled 
from their sees ; they were driven into banishment. 
The desert was constantly sounding with the hymns of 
tJiese pious and venerable exiles, as they passed along, 
loaded with chains, to the remote and savage place of 
tlieir destination ; many of them bearing the scars, and 
wounds, and mutilations, which had been inflicted upon 
them by their barbarous persecutors, to enforce their 
compliance with the Ariau doctrines. 

Athanasius, alter many strange adventures; having 

• He WM Ht Slrmlum, liny. J59 : reiiloreil in October. 



Ua BSCAPE UP ATOANASIUS. 

b»Ji concealc-d in a dry cistern, and in the rhaiuber 
bt^imi of a beaatifnl woid&q, who attended him with 
AouMii. the moet officious devotion (his awful chanM:ter 
was not even tinged with the breath irf snepicion), foDnd 
refuge at length among the monks of the 
desert Egypt is bordered on all sides by 
wastes of sand, or by barren rocks, broken into cavta 
and intricate passes ; and all these solitudes were now 
peopled by the fanatic foilowere of tlie hermit AntonT. 
They were all devoted to the opinions and attached to 
the person of Athanasius. The anirterities of the pirelate 
extorted their admiration : as he had been the great 
example of a dignified, aotive, and zealous bishop, so 
was he now of an ascetic and mortified solitary. The 
most inured to self-inflicted tortures of mind and body 
foond themselves equalled, if not outdone, in their faats 
and austerities by the lofty Patriarch of Alexandria. 
Among these devoted adherents, bis security was com- 
plete : their passionate reverence admitted not the fear 
of trfrachery. The more active and inquisitive the 
search of his enemies, he had only to plunge deeper 
into the inaccessible and inscrutable desert From this 
solitude Athanasius himself is supposed sometimes to 
hare issued forth, and, passing the seas, to have tra- 
versed even parts of the West, animating his foUoweiB, 
and confirming the faith of his whole widely-dissemi- 
nated party. His own language implies his personal, 
tlinugh secret presence at the councils of Selencia and 
liimini.* 

From the desert, unquestionably, came forth many 
of those writings which must have astonished the 
Heathen world by then- unprecedented boldness. For 

■ AUann. Oper, vol. i, p. 869. Compsra TiUemoal. Vie .i'.\!li.iu.i«. 



T 



Chap. V, 



niLAKT OP POICTIEES. 



133 



the first time since the foundation of the empire, the 
Government was more or less publicly assailed in ad- 
dresses, which arraigned its measures as unjust and as 
transgressing its legitimate authority, and which did not 
spare the person of the reigning Emperor. In the West, 
as well as in the East, Constantius was assailed with 
equal freedom of invective. The book of Hiiaiyof 
Hilary of Poictiers against Constantius is said ^oicuers. 
not to have been made public till after the death of the 
Emperor ; but it was most likely circulated among the 
Catholics of the West ; and the author exposed himself 
to the activity of hostile informers, and the indiscretion 
of fanatical friends. The Emperor, in that book, is de- 
clared to be Antichrist, a tyrant, not only in secular, but 
likewise in religious affairs ; the sole object of his reign 
was to make a free gift to the devil of the whole world, 
for which Christ had suffered.'' Lucifer of Cagliari, 



y ** Nihil prorsns aliud ^t, quaxn 
at orbem terrarum, pro quo Christus 
passus est, diabolo condonaret." Adv. 
Constant, c. 15. Hilary's highest 
indignation is excited by the gentle 
and insidious manner with which he 
confesses that Constantins endeavoured 
to compass his unholy end. He would 
not honour them with the dignity of 
martyrs, but he used the prevailing 
persuasion of bribes, flatteries, and 
Honours — ** Non dorsa ciedit, sed ven- 
trem palpat ; non trudit carcere ad 
libertatem, sed intra palatium honorat 
ad servitutem ; non latent vexat, sed 
cor occupat .... non contendit ne 
vincatur, sed adulatur at dominetar." 
There are several other remarkable 
passages in this tract. Constantius 
wished to confine the creed to the 
language of Scripture. Thi« was re- 

VOL. IL 



jected, as infringing on the authority 
of the bishops, and the forms of Apos- 
tolic preaching. ** Nolo, inquit, verba 
quae non scripta sunt did. Hoc tandem 
rogo, quia episoopis jubeat et quis apos- 
tolicie prsedicationis vetet formam ? " 
c. 16. Among the sentences ascribed 
to the Arians, which so much shocked 
the Western bishops, there is one which 
is evidently the argument of a strong 
anti-materialist asserting the sole 
existence of the Father, and that the 
terms of son and generation, &c, are 
not to be received in a literal sense. 
** Erat Deus quod est. Pater non erat, 
quia neque ei filius; nam si filius, 
necesse est ut et foemina sit," &c. One 
phrase has a singularly Oriental, I 
would say, Indian cast. ** How much 
soever the Son expands himself towards 
the knowledge of the Father, so moch 

2 F 



434 



LUCIFER OF CAGLIARI. 



Book III. 



whose violent temper afterwards distracted the Western 
Lucifer of church with a schism, is now therefore repu- 
^^**^* diated by the common consent of all parties. 
But Athanasius speaks in ardent admiration of the in- 
temperate writings of this passionate man, and once 
describes him as inflamed by the spirit of God. Lucifer, 
in his banishment, sent five books full of the most virU' 
lent invective to the Emperor. Constantius — ^it was the 
brighter side of his religious character — received these 
addresses with almost contemptuous equanimity. He 
sent a message to Lucifer, to demand if he was the 
author of these works. Lucifer replied not merely by 
an intrepid acknowledgment of his former writings, but 
by a sixth, in still more unrestrained and exaggerated 
language. Constantius was satisfied with banishing hin^ 
to the Thebaid. Athanasius himself, who in his public 
vindication addressed to Constantius, maintained the 
highest respect for the imperial dignity, in his Epistle 
to the Solitaries gives free vent and expression to his 
vehement and contemptuous sentiments. His recluse 
friends are cautioned, indeed, not to disclose the dan- 
gerous document, in which the tyrants of the Old 
Testament, Pharaoh, Ahab, Belshazzar, are contrasted, 



the Faiiier super-expands himself, lest 
he should be known by the Son." 
*' Quantum enim Filius se extendit 
cognoscere Patrem, tantum Pater 
superextendit se, ne coguitus Filio 
sit." c. 13. The parties, at least in 
the West, were speaking two totally 
distinct languages. It would be unjust 
to Hilaiy not to acknowledge the 
beautiful and Christian sentiments 
scattered through his two former 
addresses to Constantius, which are 
6rm, but respectful; and if rigidly, 



yet sincerely, dogmatic. His plea for 
toleration, if not very consistently 
maintained, is expressed with great 
force and simplicity. "Deus c(^i» 
tionem sui docuit potius quam exegit. 
. . . Deus universitatis est Dominus ; 
non requirit coactam confessionem. 
Nostrft potius non su& caus& vene* 
randus est ... . simplicitate quae* 
rendus est, confessione discendus e^ 
charitate amandus est, timore vene* 
randus est, voluntatis probitate reti* 
nendus est.** Lib. i. c 6. 



\ 



Chap. V, CHUBCH AND STATE. 435 

to his disadvantage, with the base, the cruel, the hypo- 
critical Constantius. It is curious to observe this new 
element of freedom, however at present working in a 
concealed, irregular, and, perhaps, still guarded manner, 
mingling itself with, and partially up-heaving, the 
general prostration of the human mind. The Christian, 
or, in some respects, it might be more justly said, the 
hierarchical principle, was entering into the constitution 
of human society, as an antagonistic power to that of the 
civil sovereign. The Christian community was no longer 
a separate republic, governed mthin by its own laws, 
yet submitting, in all but its religious observances, to 
the general ordinances. By the establishment of Chris- 
tianity under Constantine, and the gradual reunion of 
two sections of mankind into one civil society, those two 
powers, that of the Church and the State, became co- 
ordinate authorities, which, if any difiference should arise 
between the heads of the respective supremacies, — ^if the 
Emperor and the dominant party in Christendom should 
take opposite sides, led to inevitable collision. This 
crisis had ah'eady arrived. An Arian emperor was 
virtually excluded from a community in which the 
Athanasian doctrines prevailed. The son of Constantine 
belonged to an excommunicated class^ to whom the 
dominant party refused the name of Christians. Thus 
these two despotisms, both founded on opinion (for 
obedience to the imperial authority was rooted in the 
universal sentiment), instead of gently counteracting 
and mitigating each other, came at once into direct and 
angry conflict. The Emperor might with justice begin 
to suspect that, instead of securing a peaceful and sub- 
missive ally, he had raised up a rival or a master ; for 
the son of Constantine was thus in his turn disdainfully 
ejected from the society wnich his father had incor- 

2f2 



4;JG MUTUAL ACCLSATIOKS OF CEUELTY. Bcnk 

[wrafed ivilli the empire. It may be donbted how tat 
the violences and barbarities ftscribed by the Catholics 
lo their Arian foea may be attributed to the indignation 
of the civil power at this new and determined resistance. 
Thougli CoEstantius might himself feel or affect a com- 
passionate disdain at these imuaual attacks on his peraon 
and dignity, the general feeling of the Heathen popula* 
tion, and of many among the local governors, might 
resist this contumacious contempt of the supreme aii>- 
thority. It is difficult otherwise to account for ths, 
general tumults excited by these disputes in Alexandria^ '. 
in Constantinople, and in Itome, where at least a very 
OTUsiderable part of the population had no concern is 
the religious quarrel. The old animosity against Chris- 
tianity would array itself under the banners of one ot 
the conflicting parties, or take up the cause of the 
insulted sovereignty of the Kmperor. The Athanasians 
constantly assert that the Arians courted, or at least 
did not decline, the invidious alliance of the Pagans. 

But in truth, in the horrible cruelties perpetrated 
MntMi during these unhappy divisions, it was the 
iifcmeii/. same savage ferocity of manners, which half a. 
century before had raged against the Christian church, 
which now apparently raged in its cause.* The abstruse 



1 

farH 

ics ^1 



■ See the deposiTJoDs of the bMiops 
iiasembleil at Sardica, of tlis riolenco 
which the; bad themselves endured t 
Ihe hands of the Amos. "Aliiautei 
gladioruni aigna, pt^as 



Htendebant. Alii s 



r. Et hi 






uci'udatffi qnerdbantr 
l^obiEtf tatihcabantur viri. Bed d« 
eccleaiis omnibna electi prnpter quaa 
hue GODVeDenmt, rea gestas edocebttDt, 
militea armntos, populos cum fostibus, 
iudirum mlnas, faliaruin literamoi 



suppositJoueB. ... Ad tusc virginna 
DudaUDDes, incendia cccleslaram. otu 
ceres adrersoB mmiBtroB Dei." HiUr, 
frapn. Op. Hist, ii, o. *. 

The Amna reUrt the aarae aixu». 
tioDs of violence, cruelty, and peraecu- 
tiOD, sgunst Athanasiua. Thej mjr— .. 
'^Per Tiin,|»rc.'vdem,perbellaTn, Alex- 
aodrmorum eccluiaa dcpnedatus ;" and 
this, "per pugnas et cades ^mtiliUfn." 
DecretumSjnodiOricnlalium Eplscopo- 
rum apuii Ssrdicnm, apud S. Hilarina, 



Chap. V. MUTUAL ACCUSATIONS OF CRUELTY. 



437 



tenets of the Christian theology became the ill-under- 
stood, perhaps unintelligible, watchwords of violent and 
disorderly men. The rabble of Alexandria and other 
cities availed themselves of the commotion to give loose 
to their suppressed passion for the excitement of plunder 
and bloodshed. How far the doctrines of Christianity 
had worked down into the populace of the great cities 
cannot be ascertained, or even conjectured ; its spirit 
had not in the least mitigated their ferocity and inhu- 
manity. If Christianity is accused as the immediate 
exciting cause of these disastrous scenes, the predis- 
posing principle was in that uncivilised nature of man, 
which not merely was unallayed by the gentle and 
humanising tenets of the Gospel, but, as it has per- 
petually done, pressed the Gospel itself, as it were, into 
its own unhallowed service. 

The severe exclusiveness of dogmatic theology at- 
tained its height in this controversy. Hitherto, the 
Catholic and heretical doctrines had receded from each 
other at the first outset, and drawn ofi* to opposite and 
irreconcileable extremes. The heretics had wandered 
away into the boundless regions of speculation; they 
had diflfered on some of the most important elementary 
principles of belief; they had rarely admitted any 
common basis for argument. Here the contendiug par- 



** Immensa autem confluxerat ad Sar> 
dicam multitudo sceleratorum omnium 
et perditorum, adventantium de Con- 
stantinopoli, de Alexaudrift, qui rei 
homicidiorum, rei sanguinis, rei csedis, 
rei latrociniorum, rei praedarum, rei 
spcdiorum, ne&ndorumque omnium 
saciilegiorum et criminum rei; qui 
altaria confregerunt, eoclesias incen- 
derunt, dc mosque priratorum com- 



pilaverunt ; pro&natores mysteilonim, 
proditoresque sacramentorum Christi; 
que impiam sceleratamque haereticorum 
doctrinam contra eoclesise fidem asse- 
rentes, sapientissimos presbyteros Dei, 
diaconos, sacerdotes, atrociter demao* 
taverunt." Ibid. 19. And this protest, 
full of these tremendous charges, was 
signed by the eighty seceding Eastern 
bishopA. 



438 ATHANASIUS AS A WRITER. Book ni. 

ties set out from nearly the same principles, admitted 
the same authority, and seemed, whatever their secret 
bias or inclination, to diflfer only on the import of one 
word. Their opinions appeared to be constantly ap- 
proximating, yet found it impossible to unite. The 
Athanasians taunted the Arians with the infinite varia- 
tions in their belief : Athanasius recounts no less than 
eleven creeds. But the Arians might have pleaded 
their anxiety to reconcile themselves to the church, their 
earnest solicitude to make every advance towards a 
reunion, provided they might be excused the adoption 
of the one obnoxious word, the Homoousion, or Consub- 
stantialism. But the inflexible orthodoxy of Athanar 
sius will admit no compromise ; nothing less than 
complete unity, not merely of expression, but of mental 
conception, will satisfy the rigour of the ecclesiastical 
dictator, who will permit no single letter, and, as far as 
he can detect it, no shadow of thought, to depart from 
his peremptory creed. He denounces his adversaries, 
for the least deviation, as enemies of Christ ; he presses 
them with consequences drawn from their opim'ons; 
and, instead of spreading wide the gates of Christianity, 
he seems to unbar them with jealous reluctance, and to 
admit no one without the most cool and inquisitorial 
scrutiny into the most secret arcana of his belief. 

In the writings of Athanasius is embodied the per- 
Athanasiiu fcctiou of polcmic diviuity. His style, indeed, 
aa a writer, j^^g ^^ splendour, uo softucss, nothing to kindle 
the imagination, or melt the heart. Acute, even to 
subtlety, he is too earnest to degenerate into scholastic 
trifling. It is stem logic, addressed to the reason of 
those who admitted the authority of Christianity. There 
is no dispassionate examination, no candid philosophio 
inquiry, no calm statement of his adversaries' case^ no 



Chap. V. \THANASIUS AS A WRITER. 439 

liberal acknowledgment of the infinite difficulties of the 
subject, scarcely any consciousness of the total insuffi- 
ciency of human language to trace the question to its 
depths; aU is peremptory, dictatorial, imperious; the 
severe conviction of the truth of his own opinions, and 
the inference that none but culpable motives, either of 
pride, or strife, or ignorance, can blind his adversaries 
to their cogent and irrefragable certainty. Athanasius 
walks on the narrow and perilous edge of orthodoxy 
with a firmness and confidence which it is impossible 
not to admire. It cannot be doubted that he was 
deeply, intimately, persuaded that the vital power and 
energy, the truth, the consolatory force of Christianity, 
entirely depended on the unquestionable elevation of the 
Saviour to the most absolute equality with the Parent 
Godhead. The ingenuity with which he follows out his 
own views of the consequences of their errors is wonder- 
fully acute ; but the thought constantly occurs, whether 
a milder and more conciliating tone would not have 
healed the wounds of afflicted Christianity ; whether his 
lofty spirit is not conscious that his native element is 
that of strife rather than of peace.* 

Though nothing can contrast more strongly with the 
expansive and liberal spirit of primitive Christianity 
than the repellent tone of this exclusive theology, yet 
this remarkable phasis of Christianity seems to have 
been necessary, and doubtless not without advantage to 
the permanence of the religion. With the civilisation 
of mankind, Christianity was about to pass through the 
ordeal of those dark ages which followed the irruption 
of the barbarians. During this period, Christianity was 



* At a later period, Athanasius 
Mems to have been less rigidly exdu- 



sive against the Semi- Arians. Compare 
Mdhler, ii. p. 230. 



440 THE ATHANASIAN CONTEOVEEST. Book IH 

to subsist as the conservative principle of social order 
and the sacred charities of life> the sole, if not always 
faithful, guardian of ancient knowledge, of letters, and 
of arts. But in order to preserve its own existence, it 
assumed, of necessity, another form. It must have a 
splendid and imposing ritual to command the barbarous 
minds of its new proselytes, and one which might be 
performed by an illiterate priesthood ; for the mass of 
the priesthood could not but be involved in the general 
darkness of the times. It must likewise have brief and 
definite formularies of doctrine. As the original lan- 
guages, and even the Latin, fell into disuse, and before 
the modem languages of Europe were suflSciently formed 
to admit of translations, the sacred writings receded 
from general use ; they became the depositaries of 
Christian doctrine, totally inaccessible to the laity, and 
Necessity almost as much so to the lower clergy. Creeds 

of creeds 

during the therefore became of essential importance to 
ieuturies. comprcss the leading points of Christian doc- 
trine into a small compass. And as the barbarous and 
ignorant mind cannot endure tlie vague and the inde- 
finite, so it was essential that the main points of doctrine 
should be fixed and cast into plain and emphatic pro- 
positions. The theological language was firmly esta- 
blished before the violent breaking up of society ; and 
no more was required of the barbarian convert than 
to accept with unenquiring submission the establislied 
formulary of the faith, and gaze in awe-struck venera- 
tion at the solemn ceremonial. 

The Athanasian controversy powerfully contributed 
infloenoe of to cstabUsh the supremacy of the Eoman pon- 
ronuSJS^ tiflf. It became almost a contest between 
^^thofthe Eastern and Western Christendom; at least 
papal power. ^^ ^^g^ ^^ neither divided like the East, not 

submitted with the same comparatively willing obedience 



Chap. V. GROWTH OP PAPAL POWER. 441 

to the domination of Arianism under the imperial 
authority. It was necessary that some one great prelate 
should take the lead in this internecine strife. The 
only Western bishop whom his character would designate 
as this leader was Hosius, the Bishop of Cordova. But 
age had now disqualified this good man, whose modera- 
tion, abilities, and probably important services to Chris- 
tianity in the conversion of Constantine, had recom- 
mended him to the common acceptance of the Christian 
world, as president of the council of Nicsea. Where this 
acknowledged superiority of character and talent was 
wanting, the dignity of the see would command the 
general respect ; and what see could compete, at least, 
in the West, with Home? Antioch, Alexandria, or 
Constantinople, could alone rival, in pretensions to 
Christian supremacy, the old metropolis of the empire : 
and those sees were either fiercely contested, or occupied 
by Arian prelates. Athanasius himself, by his residence, 
at two separate periods, at Eome, submitted as it were 
his cause to the Boman pontiff. Eome became the 
centre of the ecclesiastical affairs of the West ; and, 
since the Trinitarian opinions eventually triumphed 
through the whole of Christendom, the firmness and 
resolution with which the Boman pontiffs, notwithstand- 
ing the temporary fall of Liberius, adhered to the 
orthodox faith ; their uncompromising attachment to 
Athanasius, who, by degrees, was sanctified and canon- 
ised in the memory of Christendom, might be one 
groundwork for that belief in their infallibility, which, 
however it would have been repudiated by Cyprian, and 
never completely prevailed in the East, became through- 
out the West the inalienable spiritual heirloom of the 
Boman pontiffs. Christian history will hereafter show 
how powerfully this monarchical principle, if not esta- 
blished, yet greatly strengthened, by these consequences 



442 



SUPERIORITY OK ARIANISM. 



Book 1st 



of the Atbanasian controversy, tended to consolidate and 
80 to maintain, in still expanding influence, the Chris- 
tianity of Europe.** 

This conflict continued with unabated vigour till the 
Superiority closc of the Tcigu of Constautius. Arianism 
of Arianism. gradually assumed the ascendant, through the 
violence and the arts of the Emperor ; all the more dis- 
tinguished of the orthodox bishops were in exile, or, at 
least, in disgrace. Though the personal influence of 
Athanasius was still felt throughout Christendom, hig 
obscure place of concealment was probably imknown to 
the greater part of his own adherents. The aged Hosius 
had died in his apostasy. Hilary of Poictiers, the 
Bishop of Milan, and the violent Lucifer of CagKari, 
were in exile ; and, though Constantius had consented to 
the return of Liberius to his see, he had returned with 
the disgrace of having consented to sign the new formu- 
lary framed at Sirmium, where the term, Consubstantial, 
if not rejected, was, at least, suppressed. Yet the popu- 
larity of Liberius was undiminished, and the whole city 
indignantly rejected the insidious proposition of Con- 
stantius, that Liberius and his rival Felix should rule 
the see with conjoint authority. The parties had already 



b The orthodox Synod of Sardica 
admits the superior dimity of the 
successors of St. Peter. "Hoc enim 
•ptimom et valde congruentissimum 
esse videbitur, si ad caput, id est, ad 
Petri Apostoli sedem, de singulis 
quibusque provinciis Domini re&rant 
sacerdotes.** Epist Syn. Sard, apud 
Hilarium, Fragm. Oper. Hist. ii. a 9. 
It was disclaimed with equal distinct- 
ness by the seceding Arians. ** Novam 
legem introdnoere putavemnt, ut 
OiiMitalai Eipiscopi ab Ooddentalibns 



jndicarentur." Fragm. iii. c. 12. In 
a subsequent clause, they condemn 
Julius, Bishop of Rome, by nanoe. 
It is difficult to calculate the effect 
which would commonly be produced 
on men*s minds by their involving ia 
one common cause the two tenets, 
which, in fact, bore no relation to 
each other, — the orthodox belief in 
the Trinity, and the supremacy of the 
Bishop of Rome. Sozomen, iv. 11, 
13; Theodoret, ii. 17; Philo8toi|;iii89 
It. 8. 



Chap. V. 



HERESY OF AETIUS. 



443 



come to blows, and even to bloodshed, when Felix, who 
it was admitted, had never swerved from the creed of 
NicfiBa, and whose sole offence was entering into com- 
munion with the Arians, either from moderation, or 
conscious of the inferiority of his party, withdrew to a 
neighbouring city, where he soon closed his days, and 
relieved the Christians of Eome from the apprehension 
of a rival pontiff. The unbending resistance of the 
Athanasians was no doubt confirmed, not merely by the 
variations in the Arian creed, but by the new opinions 
which they considered its legitimate offspring, and 
which appeared to justify their worst apprehensions of 
its inevitable consequences. 

Aetius formed a new sect, which not merely denied 
the consubstantiality, but the similitude of the Heresy of 
Son to the Father. He was not only not of '^®^°^- 
the same, but of a totally different, nature. Aetius, 
according to the account of his adversaries, was a bold 
and unprincipled adventurer ; ^ and the career of a per- 
son of this class is exemplified in his life. The son of a 
soldier, at one time condemned to death and to the 
confiscation of his property, Aetius became a humble 
artisan, first as a worker in copper, afterwards in gold. 
His dishonest practices obliged him to give up trade, 
but not before he had acquired some property. He 
attached himself to Paulinus, Bishop of Antioch; was 
expelled from the city by his successor ; studied gram- 



* Socrates, ii. 35. So2onien, iii. 
15, iv. 12. Philostorg. iii. 15. 17. 
Suidas, Yoc. Actios. Epiphan. Hseres. 
76, Gregor. Nyss. contra Eunom. 

The most curious part in the 
History of Aetius is his attachment 
to the Aristotelian philosophy. With 
him appears to have begun the lt»g 



strife between Aristotelianism and 
Platonism in the church. Aetius, to 
prove his unimaginative doctrines, 
employed tiie severe and prosaic cate- 
gories of Aristotle, repudiating the 
prevailing Platonic mode of argument 
used by Origen and Clement of Ales* 
andria. Socrates, ii. c. 35. 



444 HERESY OF MACEDONIUS. Book IU. 

mar at Anazarba ; was encouraged by th^ Arian bishop 
of that see, named Athanasius ; returned to Antioch ; 
was ordained deacon ; and again expelled the city. 
Discomfited in a public disputation with a Gnostic, he 
retired to Alexandria, where, being exercised in the art 
of rhetoric, he revenged himself on a Manichean, who 
died of shame. He then became a public itinerant 
teacher, practising, at the same time, his lucrative art of 
a goldsmith. The Arians rejected Aetius with no less 
earnest indignation than the orthodox, but they could 
not escape being implicated, as it were, in his unpopu- 
larity ; and the odious Anomeans, those who denied the 
similitude of the Son to the Father, brought new dis- 
credit even on the more temperate partisans of the 
Arian creed. Another heresiarch, of a higher rank, 
still further brought disrepute on the Arian party. 
ofMacedo- Maccdonius, the Bishop of Constantinople, to 
^"^ the Arian tenet of the inequality of the Son to 

the Father, added the total denial of the divinity of the 
Holy Ghost. 

Council still followed council. Though we may not 
concur with the Arian bishops in ascribing to their 
adversaries the whole blame of this perpetual tumult 
and confusion in the Christian world, caused by these 
incessant assemblages of thfe clergy, there must have 
been much melancholy truth in their statement. " The 
East and the West are in a perpetual state of restless* 
ness and disturbance. Deserting our spiritual charges ; 
abandoning the people of God ; neglecting the preach- 
ing of the Gospel ; we are hurried about from place to 
place, sometimes to great distances, some of us infirm 
with age, with feeble constitutions or ill health, and are 
sometimes obliged to leave our sick brethren on the 
road. The whole administration of the empire, of the 



CHAP. V. COUNCIL OF EIMINL 445 

Emperor himself, the tribunes, and the commanders, at 
this fearful crisis of the state, are solely occupied with 
the lives and the condition of the bishops. The people 
are by no means unconcerned. The whole brotherhood 
watches in anxious suspense the event of these troubles ; 
the establishment of post-horses is worn out by our 
joumeyings ; and all on account of a few wretches, who, 
if they had the least remaining sense of religion, would 
say with the Prophet Jonah, * Take us up and cast us 
into the sea ; so shall the sea be cahn unto you ; for we 
know that it is on our account that this great tempest is 
upon you.'"^ 

The synod at Sirmium had no effect in reconciling 
the differences, or affirming the superiority of either 
party. A double council was appointed, of the Eastern 
prelates at Seleucia, of the Western at BiminL The 
Arianism of Constantius himself had by this tune dege- 
nerated still farther from the creed of NicsBa. Eudoxus, 
who had espoused the Anomean doctrines of Aetius, 
ruled his untractable but passive mind. The ca^jnca of 
council of Bimini consisted of at least 400 ^"™^ 
bishops, of whom not above eighty were Arians. Their 
resolutions were firm and peremptory. They repudiated 
the Arian doctrines; they expressed their rigid ad- 
herence to the formulary of Nicsea. Ten bishops, how- 
ever, of each party, were deputed to communicate their 
decrees to Constantius. The ten Arians were received 
with the utmost respect, their rivals with every kind of 
slight and neglect. Insensibly the Athanasians were 
admitted to more intimate intercourse; the flatteries, 
perhaps the bribes, of the Emperor prevailed; they 
returned, having signed a formulary directly opposed to 

d Hoar. Oper. Hist. Fragm. zi. c 2& 



446 



TEIUMPH OF ARIANISM. 



BooKin. 



their instructions. Their reception at first was unpro- 
mising; but by degrees the council, from which its 
firmest and most resolute members had gradually de- 
parted, and in which many poor and aged bishops still 
retained their seats, wearied, perplexed, worn out by the 
expense and discomfort of a long residence in a foreign 
city, consented to sign a creed in which the contested 
word, the homoousion, was carefully suppressed.® Arian- 
ism was thus deliberately adopted by a council, of which 
the authority was undisputed. The world, says Jerome^ 
groaned to find itself Arian. But, on their return to 
their dioceses, the indignant prelates everjrwhere pro- 
tested against the fraud and violence which had been 
practised against them. New persecutions followed: 
Gaudentius, Bishop of Bimini, lost his life. 

The triumph of Arianism was far easier among the 
hundred and sixty bishops assembled at Seleucia. But 
it was more fatal to their cause : the Arians, and Semi- 
Arians, and Anomeans, mingled in tumultuous strife, 
and hurled mutusd anathemas against each other. 

The new council met at Constantinople. By some 
strange political or religious vicissitude, the party of the 
Anomeans triumphed, while Aetius, its author, was sent 
into banishment.' Ma-cedonius was deposed; Eudoxus 



* It is curioos enough, that the 
Latin language did not furnish terms 
to express this fine distinction. Some 
Western prelates, many of whom 
probably did not undei-stand a word 
of Greek, proposed, '*jam usise et 
horooousii nomina recedant qxm in 
divinia Scriptmia de Deo, et Dei 
Filio, non inveniuntur scripta." Apud 
Hilarium, Oper. Hist. Fragm. iz. 

' AetiuB and Eonomiua seem to 



have heea the heroes of the historian 
Philostorgius, fragments of whose 
history have been preserved by the 
pious hostility of Photius. This dimi 
nishes our r^ret for the loss of the 
onginal work, which would be less 
curious than a genuine Arian history. 
Philostoi^us seems to object to the 
anti-materialiBt view of the Deity 
maintained by the Semi-Arian £use« 
bias, and, according to him, by Aria" 



Chap. V. 



TRIUMPH OF ARIANISM. 



447 



of Antioch was translated to the imperial see ; and the 
solemn dedication of the church of St. Sophia was cele-» 
brated by a prelate who denied the similitude of nature 
between the Father and the Son. The whole Christian 
world was in confusion ; these fatal feuds penetrated 
almost as far as the Gospel itself had reached. The 
Emperor, whose alternately partial vehemence and sub- 
tlety had inflamed rather than allayed the tumult, found 
his authority set at nought ; a deep, stem, and ineradic- 
able resistance opposed the imperial decrees. A large 
portion of the empire proclaimed aloud that there were 
limits to the imperial despotism ; that there was a 
higher allegiance, which superseded that due to the 
civil authority ; that in affairs of religion they would 
not submit to the appointment of superiors who did not 
profess their views of Christian orthodoxy.^ The Em- 
peror himself, by mingling with almost fanatical passion 
and zeal in these controversies, at once lowered himself 
to the level of his subjects, and justified the importance 
which they attached to these questions. If Constantius 
had firmly, calmly, and consistently, enforced mutual 
toleration, — if he had set the example of Christian 
moderation and temper ; if he had set his face solely 
against the stem refusal of Athanasius and his party to 
admit the Arians into communion, — he might, perhaps, 
have retained some influence over the contending par- 
ties. But he was not content without enforcing the 
dominance of the Arian party ; he dignified Athanasius 



himsdlt*. He reproaches Eusebins with 
asserting the Deity to be incompre- 
hensible and inconceivable : Ayvooaros 
Koi dKai ctAifirTos. Lib, i. 2, 3. 
' Hilary quotes the sentence of St. 



Paul, ** Ubi fides est, ibi et libertas 
est;'* in allusion to the £mperor*s 
assuming the cognisance over religious 
questions. Oper. Hist. Fragro* i. c & 



443 TRIUMPH OF ARIANISM. Book UI. 

^th tbe hatred of a personal enemy, almost of a rival ; 
and his subjects, by his own apparent admission that 
these were questions of spiritual b'fe and death, were 
compelled to postpone his decrees to those of God ; to 
obey their bishops, who held the keys of heaven and 
hell, i-ather than Caesar, who could only afflict them 
with civil disabilities, or penalties in this lite. 



Ciup. TI JULIAN. 449 



OHAPTEB VL 



Julian. 



Amidst all this intestine strife within the pale of Chris- 
tianity, and this conflict between the civil and religious 
authorities concerning their respective limits. Paganism 
made a desperate effort to regain its lost supremacy. 
Julian has, perhaps, been somewhat unfairly branded 
with, the ill-sounding name of Apostate. His Chris- 
tianity was but the compulsory obedience of youth to 
the distasteful lessons of education, enforced by the 
hateful authority of a tyrannical relative. As iearly as 
the maturity of his reason, — at least as soon as he dared 
to reveal his secret sentiments, — ^he avowed his prefer- 
ence for the ancient Paganism. 

The most astonishing part of Julian's history is the 
development and partial fulfilment of all his vast designs 
during a reign of less than two years. His own age 
wondered at the rapidity with which the young Em- 
peror accomplished his military, civil, and religious 
schemes.* During his separate and subordinate com- 
mand as Caesar, his time was fully occupied with his 
splendid campaigns upon the Khine.** Julian was the 
vindicator of the old majesty of the empire ; he threw 



« « Dicet oliquis : quomodo tarn 
malta tarn brevi tempore. £t rect^. 
Sed Imperator noster addit ad tempus 

quod otio suo detrahit Itaque 

grandttvum jam imperium videbittir 



his, qui Don ratione diemm et mensium. 
sed operum multitudine et effectanun re* 
rum modo Juliani tempora metientur." 
Mamertini Grat. Actio, c. ziv. 
^ Six years, from 355 to 361. 



VOL, IL 2Q 



450 SHORT BEIGN OF JULIAN. Book IU. 

back with a bold and successful effort the inroad of bar- 
barism, which already threatened to overwhelm the 
Eoman civilisation of Graul, During the two imfinisbed 
Short reign years of his sole government, Julian had re- 
A.D. 361-363. united the whole Boman empire under his 
single sceptre; he had reformed the army, the court, 
the tribunals of justice ; he had promulgated many 
useful laws, which maintained their place in the juris- 
prudence of the empire ; he had established peace on 
all the frontiers ; he had organised a large and well- 
disciplined force to chastise the Persians for their 
aggressions on the eastern border ; and, by a formidable 
diversion within their own territories, to secure the 
Euphratic provinces against the most dangerous rival of 
the Roman power. During all these engrossing cares of 
empire, he devoted himself with the zeal and activity of 
a mere philosopher and man of letters to those more 
tranquil pursuits. The conqueror of the Franks and 
the antagonist of Sapor delivered lectures in the schools, 
and published works, which, whatever may be thought 
of their depth and truth, display no mean powers of 
composition : as a writer, Julian will compete with most 
of his age. Besides all this, his vast and restless spirit 
contemplated, and had already commenced, nothing less 
than a total change in the religion of the empire ; not 
merely the restoration of Paganism to the legal su- 
premacy which it possessed before the reign of Con- 
stantine, and the degradation of Christianity into a 
private sect ; but the actufd extirpation of the new reli- 
gion from the minds of men by the reviving energies of 
a philosophic, and at the same time profoundly religious, 
Paganism. 

The genius of ancient Eome and of ancient Greece 
might appear to revive in amicable union in the soul 



Chap. VI. . HIS CHARACTEfi. 451 

of Julian. He displayed the unmeasured military am- 
bition, which turned the defensive war into character of 
a war of aggression on all the imperilled '^*"*°' 
frontiers ; the broad and vigorous legislation ; the unity 
of administration ; the severer tone of manners, which 
belonged to the better days of Rome ; so too the fine 
cultivation ; the perspicuous philosophy ; the lofty con- 
ceptions of moral greatness and purity, which distin- 
guished the old Athenian, If in the former (the Eoman 
military enterprise), he met eventually with the fate of 
Crassus or of Varus, rather than the glorious successes 
of Germanicus or Trajan, the times were more in fault 
than the general : if in the latter (the Grecian eleva- 
tion and elegance of mind), Julian more resembled at 
times the affectation of the Sophist and the coarseness 
of the Cynic, than the lofty views and exquisite har- 
mony of Plato or the practical wisdom of Socrates, the 
effete and exhausted state of Grecian letters and philo- 
sophy must likewise be taken into the account. 

In the uncompleted two years of his sole empire^*^ 
Julian had advanced so far in the restoration of the 
internal vigour and unity of administration, that it is 
doubtM how much further, but for the fatal Perwan 
campaign, he might have fulfilled the visions of his 
noble ambition. He might have averted, at least for 
a time, the terrible calamities which burst upon the 
Eoman world during the reign of Yalentinian and 
Yalens. But difficult and desperate as the enterprise 
might appear, the re-organisation of a decaying empire 
was less impracticable than the restoration of an all but 
extinguished religion. A religion may awaken from 



• One jear, eight months, and twentj^thne da^re. La Bletene, Vie dt 
/ulien, p. 494. 

2o2 



452 EELIGION OF JULIAN. Book HI. 

indifference, and resume its dominion over the minds of 
men ; but not if supplanted by a new form of faith 
which has identified itself with the opinions and senti- 
ments of the general mind. It can never dethrone a 
successfiil invader, who has been recognised as a lawful 
sovereign. And Christianity (could the clear and saga- 
cious mind of Julian be blind to this essential differ- 
ence?) had occupied the whole soul of man with a 
fulness and confidence which belonged, and could be- 
long, to no former religion. It had intimately blended 
together the highest truths of philosophy with the 
purest morality ; the loftiest speculation with the most 
practical spirit. The vague theory of another life, timidly 
and dimly announced by the later Paganism, could ill 
compete with the deep and intense conviction, now 
rooted in the hearts of a large part of mankind by 
Christianity ; the source in some of harrowing fears, in 
others of the noblest hopes. 

Julian united in his own mind, and attempted to work 
Religion of ^^^ ^ ^^^ rcligiou, the two incongruous cha- 
juiian. racters of a zealot for the older superstitions 
and for the more modem philosophy of Greece. He 
had fused together, in that which appeared to him an 
harmonious system, Homer and Plato. He thought that 
the whole ritual of sacrifice would combine with that 
allegoric interpretation of the ancient mythology, which 
ondeified the greater part of the Heathen Pantheon. 
All that Paganism had borrowed from Christianity, it 
had rendered comparatively cold and powerless. The 
one Supreme Deity was a name and an abstract con- 
ception, a metaphysical being. The visible representa- 
tive of the Deity, the Sun, which was in general an 
essential part of the new system, was, after all, foreigii 
and Oriental; it belonged to the genuine mythology 



Ohap. VI. BELIGION OF JULIAN. 463 

neither of Greece nor Kome. The Theurgy, or awful 
and sublime communion of the mind with the spiritual 
world, was either too fine and fanciful for the vulgar 
belief, or associated, in the dim confusion of the popular 
conception, with that magic, against which the laws of 
Rome had protested with such stern solemnity ; and 
which, therefore, however eagerly pursued and reve- 
renced with involuntary awe, was always associated with 
impressions of its unlawfulness and guilt. Christianity, 
on the other hand, had completely incorporated with 
itself aU that it had admitted from Paganism, or which, 
if we may so speak, constituted the Pagan part of Chris- 
tianity. The Heathen Theurgy, even in its purest form, 
its dreamy intercourse with the intermediate race of 
daemons, was poor and ineffective, compared with the 
diabolic and angelic agency, which became more and 
more mingled up with Christianity. Where these sub- 
ordinate daemons were considered by the more philo- 
sophic Pagan to have been the older deities of the 
popular faith, it was rather a degradation of the ancient 
worship ; where this was not the case, this fine percep- 
tion of the spiritual world was the secret of the initiate 
few, rather than the all-pervading superstition of the 
many. The Christian daemonology, on the other hand, 
which began to be heightened and multiplied by the 
fantastic imagination of the monks, brooding in their 
solitudes, seemed at least to grow naturally out of the reli- 
gious system. The gradually darkening into superstition 
was altogether imperceptible and harmonised entirely 
with the general feelings of the time. Christianity was 
a living plant, which imparted its vitality to the foreign 
suckers grafted upon it ; the dead and sapless trimk of 
Paganism withered even the living boughs which were 
blended with it, bv its own inevitable decay. 



454 EDUCATION OF JULIAlf. Book Hi, 

On the other hand, Christianity at no period could 
uot.voqt. ajipear in a less amiable and attractive IJglit 
ciirtju»ni9. to a mind preindiaposed to its reception. It 
was in a state of nnivereal fierce and implacable dis- 
cord t tlie chief cities of the empire had run with blood 
shed in religious quarrels. The sole object of the con- 
flicting parties seemed to he to confine to themselves 
the temporal and spiritual blessings of the faith; to 
exclude as many as they might from that eternal life, 
and to anathematise to that eternal death, which were 
revealed by the Gospel, and placed, according to the 
general belief, under the special authority of the clergy. 
Society seemed to he split up into irreconcileable par- 
ties ; to the animosities of Pagan and Christian, were 
now added those of Christian and Christian. Chria- 
tianity had passed through its earlier period of noble 
moral enthusiaam ; of the energy witli which it addressed 
its first proclamation of its doctrines to man ; of the i 
dignity with which it stood aloof from the intrigues and 1 
vices of the world ; and of its admirable constancy under J 
persecution. It had not fully attained its second state 
as a rehgion generally established in the minds of men, 
by a dominant hierarcliy of unquestioned authority. 
Its great truths had no longer the striking charm of 
novelty ; nor were they yet universally and profoandljr i 
implanted in the general mind by hereditary tra 
mission or early education, and ratified by the unques- J 
tiouing sanction of ages. 

The youtliful education of Julian had been, it might 
almost appear, studiously and skilfully conducted, so as 
to show the brighter side of Paganiam, the darker of 
Chriatianity. His infant years had been clouded by the 
murder of hia father. How far bis mind might retain 
any impression of that awful event, or remembrance of 



CHia». VI. 



EDUCATION OF JULIAN. 



455 



the place of his refuge, the Cliristian church, or of tlie 
saviour of his life, the virtuous Bishop of Arethusa, it is 
of course impossible to conjecture. But Julian's first 
instructor was a man who, bom a Scythian, and edu- 
cated in Greece,** united the severe morality of his ruder 
ancestors with the elegance of Grecian accomplishments. 
He enforced upon his young pupil the strictest modesty, 
contempt for the licentious or frivolous pleasures of 
youth, for the theatre and the bath. At the same time, 
while he delighted his mind with the poetry of Homer, 
his graver studies were the Greek and Latin languages, 
the elements of the philosophy of Greece, and music, 
that original and attractive element of Grecian educa- 
tion." At the age of about fourteen or fifteen, Julian 
was shut up, with his brother Gallus, in Macellae, a 
fortress in Asia Minor, and committed in this sort of 
honourable prison to the rigid superintendence of eccle- 
siastics. By his Christian instructors, the Education of 
young and ardent Julian was bound down to a '^""^* 
course of the strictest observances, the midnight vigU, 
the fast, the long and weary prayer, and visits to the 
tombs of martyrs, rather than a wise and rational initia- 
tion in the genuine principles of the Gospel ; or a 
judicious familiarity with the originality, the beauty, 
and the depth of the Christian morals and Christian 
religion. He was taught the virtue of implicit sub- 
mission to his ecclesiastical superiors ; the munificence 
of conferring gifts upon the churches ; with his brother 
Gallus he was permitted, or rather incited, to build a 
chapel over the tomb of St Mammas.' For six years, he 



* His name was Mardonitu. Jalian. 
ad Athen. et Misopogon. Socrat. E. 
H. iii. 1. Amm, Marc, xxii, 12. 

• See the hijh character of this man 



in the Misopogon, p. 351. 

' Julian is said even thus early to 
have betrayed his secret inclinations; 
in his dedamations he took delight in 



456 



EDUCATION OF JULIAN. 



BooKlIL 



bitterly asserts, be was deprived of every kind of useful 
instruction.^ Julian and his brother, it is even said, 
were ordained readers, and oflBciated in public in that 
character. But the passages of the sacred writings, 
>vith which he might thus have become acquainted, 
were imposed as lessons; and in the mind of Julian, 
Christianity, thus taught and enforced, was inseparably 
ex)nnected with the irksome and distasteful feelings of 
confinement and degradation. No youths of his own 
rank, or of ingenuous birth, were permitted to visit his 
prison ; he was reduced, as he indignantly declares, to 
the debasing society of slaves. 

At the age of twenty, Julian was permitted to reside 
in Constantinople, afterwards at Nicomeditu The 
jealousy of Constantius in Constantinople was excited 
by the popular demeanour, sober manners, and the 
reputation for abilities, which directed all eyes towards 
his youthful nephew. He dismissed Julian to the more 
dangerous and fatal residence in Nicomedia, in the 
neighbourhood of the most celebrated and most attrac- 
tive of the Pagan party. The most faithful adherents 
of Paganism were that class with which the tastes and 
inclinations of Julian brought him into close intimacy, 
the sophists, the men of letters, the rhetoricians, the 
poets, the philosophers. He was forbidden, indeed, 
j^erhaps by the jealousy of his appointed instructor 
Ecebolus, who at this time conformed to the religion of 
the court, to hear the dangerous lectures of Libanius, 



defending the cause of Paganism against 
Christianity. A prophetic miracle fore- 
boded his future course. While this 
chui'ch rose expeditiously under the 
labour of Gallus, the obstinate stones 
would not obey that of Julian ; an 
invisible hand disturbed the founda* 



tions, and threw down all his work. 
Gregory Nazianzen declares that he 
had heard this from eye-witnesses; 
Sozomen, from those who had heard 
it from eye-witnesses. Gr^r. Or. iii.- 
p. 59, 61. Sozomen, r. 2. 

f Udirros fuiBiifueros infov9«datK 



Chap. VI. INTERCOURSE WITH THE PHILOSOPHERS. 467 

equally celebrated for his eloquence and his ardent 
attachment to the old religion. But Julian interoonrse 

with the 

obtained liis writings, which he devoured with philosophers, 
all the delight of a stolen enjoyment.^ Julian formed 
an intimate acquaintance with the heads of the philo- 
sophic school, with -<9Edesius, his pupils Eusebius and 
Chrysanthius, and at last with the famous Maximus. 
These men are accused of practising the most subtle and 
insidious arts upon the character of their ardent and 
youthful votary. His grave and meditative mind im- 
bibed with eager delight the solemn mysticism of their 
tenets, which were impressed more deeply by significant 
and awful ceremonies. A magician at Nicomedia first 
excited his curiosity, and tempted him to enter on these 
exciting courses. At Pergamus he visited the aged 
^desius ; and the manner in which these philosophers 
passed Julian onward from one to another, as if through 
successive stages of initiation in their mysterious doc- 
trines, bears the appearance of a deliberate scheme to 
work him up to their purposes. The aged iEdesius 
addressed him as the favoured child of wisdom ; declined 
the important charge of his instruction, but commended 
him to his pupils, Eusebius and Chrysanthius, who could 
unlock the inexhaustible source of light and wisdom. 
"If you should attain the supreme felicity of being 
initiated in their mysteries, you will blush to have been 
bom a man, you will no longer endure the name." The 
pupils of iEdesius fed the greedy mind of the proselyte 
with all their stores of wisdom, and then skilfully un- 
folded the greater fame of Maximus. Eusebius pro- 
fessed to despise the vulgar arts of wonder-working, at 
least in comparison with the purification of the soul ; but 



k LiUn. Orat. Par. t i. f\ :^Q 



458 HAXIMUS. Book III 

he described the power of Maximus in terms to whicli 
Julian could not listen without awe and wonder. Maxi- 
mus had led them into the temple of Hecate ; he had 
burned a few grains of incense, he had murmured a 
hymn, and the statue of the goddess was seen to smile. 
They were awe-struck, but Maximus had declared that 
this was nothing. The lamps throughout the temple 
shall immediately burst into light : as he spoke, they 
had kindled and blazed up. ''But of these mystical 
wonder-workers, we think lightly," proceeded the skilftil 
speaker, " do thou, like us, think only of the internal 
purification of the reason." " Keep to your book," 
broke out the impatient youth, "this is the man 1 
seek."* Julian hastened to Ephesus. The person and 
demeanour of Maximus were well suited to keep up the 
illusion. He was a venerable man, with a long white 
beard, with keen eyes, great activity, soft and persua- 
sive voice, rapid and fluent, eloquence. By Maximus, 
who summoned Chrysanthius to him, Julian was brought 
into direct communion with the invisible world. The 
&ithM and oflScious Genii from this time watched over 
Julian in peace and war ; they conversed with him in 
his slumbers, they warned him of dangers, they con- 
ducted his military operations. Thus far we proceed on 
the authority of Pagan writers ; the scene of his solemn 
initiation rests on the more doubtful testimony of Chris- 
tian historians,*^ which, as they were little likely to be 
admitted into the secrets of these dark and hidden rites, 
is to be received with grave suspicion ; more especially 
as they do not scruple to embellish these rites with 
Christian miracle. Julian was led first into a temple, 



* Eunapiun, in Vit. JEdeiii tt I ^ Oreg. Naz. Orat. iu. 71. Theo- 



Mazimi. I dorat HL S. 



Chap. VI. CONDUCT OF CONSTANTIUS. 459 

then into a subterranean crypt, in almost total darkness. 
The evocations were made ; wild and terrible sounds 
were heard ; spectres of fire jibbered around. Julian, in 
his sudden terror, made the sign of the cross. All dis- 
appeared, all was silent. Twice this took place, and 
Julian could not but express to Maximus his astonish- 
ment at the power of this sign. " The gods," returned 
the dexterous philosopher, "will have no communion 
with so profane a worshipper." From this time, it is 
said, on better authority,™ Julian burst, like a lion in 
his wrath, the slender ties which bound him to Chris- 
tianity. But. he was still constrained to dissemble his 
secret apostasy. His enemies declared that he redoubled 
his outward zeal for Christianity, and even shaved his 
head in conformity with the monastic practice. His 
brother Gallus had some suspicion of his secret views, 
and sent the Arian bishop Aetius to confirm him in the 
faith. 

How far Julian, in this time of danger, stooped to 
disffuise his real sentiments, it were rash to conduct of 

^ ••111 -I Constantlus 

decide. But it would by no means commend tojuiian. 
Christianity to the respect and attachment of Julian, 
that it was the religion of his imperial relative. Popu- 
lar rumour did not acquit Constantius of the murder of 
Julian's father ; and Julian himself afterwards publicly 
avowed his belief in this crime.*^ He had probably 
owed his own escape to his infant age and to the activity 
of his friends. Up to this time, his life had been the 
precarious and permissive boon of a jealous tyrant, who 
had inflicted on him every kind of degrading restraint. 
His place of education had been a prison, and his subse- 
quent liberty was watched with suspicious vigilance, 

■ Libenitui. 

B Ad Samtom Populumque Ath^niensem. Tulian Opcr. p. 270. 



460 CONDUCT OF CONSTANTIUS. Book lit. 

The personal religion of Constantius; his embarking 
with alternate violence and subtlety in theological dis- 
putations; his vacillation between timid submission to 
priestly authority and angry persecution, were not likely 
to m£^e a favourable impression on a wavering mind. 
The Pagans themselves, tf we may take the best his- 
torian of the time as the representative of their opinions,** 
considered that Constantius dishonoured the Christian 
religion by mingling up its perspicuous simplicity vnXh 
anile superstition. If there was little genuine Chris- 
tianity in the theological discussions of Constantius, 
there had been less of its beautiful practical spirit in his 
conduct to Julian. It had allayed no jealotlsy, miti- 
gated no hatred ; it had not restrained his temper from 
overbearing tyranny, nor kept his hands clean from 
blood. And now, the death of his brother Gallus, to 
whom he seems to have cherished warm attachment, 
was a new evidence of the capricious and unhumanised 
tyranny of Constantius, a fearful omen of the uncer- 
tainty of his own life under such a despotism. He had 
beheld the advancement and the fate of his brother; 
and his future destiny presented the alternative either 
of ignominious obscurity or fatal distinction. His life 
was spared only through the casual interference of the 
humane and enlightened Empress; and her influence 
gained but a slow and difficult triumph over the malig- 
nant eunuchs, who ruled the mind of Constantius. But 
he had been exposed to the ignominy of arrest and 
imprisonment, and a fearful suspense of seven weai-y 
months.^ His motions, his words, were watched; his 
very heart scrutinised ; he was obliged to suppress the 



• Ammianus Marcellinus. I firivAv B\»p iKit6<ras T|r8c ic^uccio-f . 

9 'Euk 5^ a^ic« fJL^is, ivrh, | Ad. S. P. Ath. p. 272. 



Chap. VI. JULIAN AT ATHENS. 461 

natural emotions of grief for the death of his brother ; 
to impose silence on his fluent eloquence, and act the 
hypocrite to nature as well as to religion. 

BKs retreat was Athens, of all cities in the empire 
that, probably, in which Paganism still main- j^nanat 
tained the highest ascendancy, and appeared ^^^^ 
in the most seductive form. The political religion of 
Eome had its stronghold in the capital ; that of Greece, 
in the centre of intellectual culture and of the fine arts. 
Athens might still be considered the university of the 
empire; from all quarters, particularly of the East, 
young men of talent and promise crowded to complete 
their studies in those arts of grammar, rhetoric, philo- 
sophy ; which, however, by no means disdained by the 
Christians, might still be considered as more strictly 
attached to the Pagan interest. 

Among the Christian students who at this time paid 
the homage of their residence to this great centre of 
intellectual culture, were Basil and Gregory of Nazian- 
zum. The latter, in the orations with which in later 
times he condemned the memory of Julian, has drawn, 
with a coarse and unfriendly hand, the picture of his 
person and manners. His manners did injustice to the 
natural beauties of his person, and betrayed his restless, 
inquisitive, and somewhat incoherent, character. The 
Christian (we must remember, indeed, that these pre- 
dictions were published subsequent to their fulfilment, 
and that, by their own account, Julian had already 
betrayed, in Asia Minor, his secret propensities) already 
discerned in the unquiet and unsubmissive spirit, the 
future apostate. But the general impression which 
fulian made was far more favourable. His quickness, 
his accomplishments, the variety and extent of his 
information ; his gentleness, his eloquence, and even his 



462 JULIAN AT ELEUSIS. 

modeflty, gained universal admiration, and Btrengthenet 
the interest excited by his forlorn and perilous position. 

Of all existing Pagan rites, those which still mai 
jmim tained the greatest respect, and would impre 

Eisiuu. a mind like Julian's with the profoiindel 
veneration, were the Eleuainian mysteries. They unite 
the sanctity of almost immemorial age with » 
tude to the Platonic Paganism of the day, at lea 
sufficient for the ardent votaries of the latter to clai 
their alliance. The Hierophaut of Eleusis was admitti 
to be the most [lotent theurgist in the world.i Julii 
honoured him, or was honoured by his intimacy; ai 
the initiation in the Mystery of those, emphaticall; 
called the Goddesses, with all its appalling dramatic 
machinery, and its high speculative and imagioativi 
doctrines, the impenetrable, the ineffable tenets of t 
sanctuary, consummated the work of Julian's conversioil 

The elevation of Julian to the rank of Ctesar was a 
Eiawtion length extorted from the necessities, rath^ 
t^^S than freely bestowed by the love, of the Eofe 
''""■ peror. Nor did the jealous hostihty of GonstaiM 

tins cease with tbis apparent reconciliation. Constantini 
with cold suspicion, thwarted all his measures, cripple( 
his resources, and appropriated to himself, with unblushE< 
ing injustice, the fame of his victories.'' Julian's assump^ 

t ConipAre (io Eunap. Vit. Mda. 
p, 52, edit. Boiseonadc) the prophecy 
cf the distohition of PugiuiiBm ascribed 
to ih'm pontiff; a predicticn which 
maj do credit to the sagacity, or evince 
ihe apprehensions of the uer, but will 
by no means claim the honour of 



, 1. I 



; seqq. 



The ■ 
mianui ahowa the real 
the court towards Julian. " In odlna 
vetiit cum tictoriiii suis capella 
homo ; Dt hirButnin Juliaaiun 
penteflappeUantaqueloqaacem tall 
ft purpurstam aiiniani, at litterii 
GiKCom." Amm. Hare. xrii. 11 



Chap. VL DEATH OF CONSTANTIUS. 463 

tion of the purple, whether forced upon him by the 
ungovernable attachment of his soldiery, or prepared by 
his own subtle ambition, was justified, and perhaps com- 
pelled, by the base ingratitude of Constantius ; and by 
his manifest, if not avowed, resolution of preparing the 
ruin of Julian, by removing his best troops to the East." 

The timely death of Constantius alone prevented the 
deadly warfare in which the last of the race of Death of 
Constantino were about to contest the empire. ^n»*«^""«- 
The dying bequest of that empire to Julian, said to have 
been made by the penitent Constantius, could not efface 
the recollection of those long years of degradation, of 
jealousy, of avowed or secret hostility ; still less could it 
allay the dislike or contempt of Julian for his weak and 
insolent predecessor, who, governed by eunuchs, wasted 
the precious time which ought to have been devoted to 
the cares of the empire, in idle theological discussions, 
or quarrels with contending ecclesiastics. The part in 
the character of the deceased Emperor least likely to 
find favour in the sight of his successor Julian was his 
religion. The unchristian Christianity of Constantius 
must bear some part of the guilt of Julian's apostasy. 

Up to the time of his revolt against Constantius, 
Julian had respected the dominant Chris- cood„ctof 
tianity. The religious acts of his early youth, '''^"^ 
performed in obedience to, or under the influence of his 
instructors ; or his submissive conformity, when his 
watchful enemies were eager for his life, ought hardly 
to convict him of deliberate hypocrisy. In Gaul, still 
under the strictest suspicion, and engaged in almost 
incessant warfare, he would have few opportunities to 
betray his secret sentiments. But Jupiter was con- 

• Amm. Maix. iz. &c. ZosimuB, iii. LiUn. Or. x. JuL ad S. P. Q. A^ 



464 DEATH OF CONSTANTIUS Book m. 

suited in his private chamber, and sanctioned his assump- 
tion of the imperial purple.^ And no sooner had he 
marched into Illyria, an independent Emperor at the 
head of his own army, than he threw aside all conceal- 
ment, and proclaimed himself a worshipper of the an- 
cient gods of Paganism. The auspices were taken ; and 
the act of divination was not the less held in honour, 
because the foii;unate soothsayer announced the death 
of Constantius. The army followed the example of their 
victorious general At his command, the neglected 
temples resumed their ceremonies ; he adorned them 
with offerings ; he set the example of costly sacrifices.' 
The Athenians in particular obeyed with alacrity the 
commands of the new Emperor; the honours of the 
priesthood became again a worthy object of contest; 
two distinguished females claimed the honour of repre- 
senting the genuine EumolpidaB, and of oflSciating in the 
Parthenon. Julian, already anxious to infiise as much 
of the real Christian spirit, as he could, into reviving 
Paganism, exhorted the contending parties to pecwe and 
unity, as the most acceptable sacrifice to the gods. 

The death of Constantius left the whole Eoman world 
open to the civil and religious schemes which lay, float- 
ing and unshaped, before the imagination of Julian. 
The civil reforms were executed with necessary severity ; 
but in some instances, with more than necessary cruelty. 
The elevation of Paganism into a rational and effective 
faith, and the depression, and even the eventual extinc- 
tion of Christianity, were the manifest objects of Julian's 
religious policy. Julian's religion was the eclectic Pa- 

* Amm. xzi. 1. I (ricc^o/uey robs Btohs iuwfKLvUhy Kolk 



« The Western army was more 
easily practised upon than the Eastern 
soidiei's at a subsequent peiiod. 8pi|- 



rh TA,^flos rov ffvyKor^XBovros fiog 
(TrparoircSov Bfoatfih iffrip, Epist 
xxxviiL 



■ SaiP. TL 



CONDUCT OF JULIAN. 



■465 



I 



gaoiam of the new Platonic philosophy. The ohiei 
speculatiTe tenet waa Oriental rather than Greek or 
Botnan. The one immaterial inconceivable Father 
dwelt alone ; thongh his majeBty was held in reverence, 
the direct and material object of worship was the great 
Snn,^ the living and animated, and propitious and 
beneficent image of the immaterial Father.^ Below this 
primal Deity and his glorious image, there was room for 
the whole Pantheon of subordinate deities, of whom, in 
like manner, the stars were the material representa- 
tives; but who possessed invisible powers, and mani- 
fested themselves in various ways, in dreams and visions, 
through prodigies and oracles, the flights of birds, and 
the signs in the sfleriflcial victims.* This vague and 
comprehensive Paganism might include under its do- 
minion all classes and nations which adhered to tlie 
Heathea worship ; the Oriental, the Greet, the Roman, 
even, perhaps, the Northern barbarian, would not refuse 
to admit the simplicity of the primal article of the 
creed, spreading out as it did below into the boundless 
latitude of Polytheism. The immortality of the soul 
appears to follow as an inference from some of Julian's 
Platonic doctrines;' but it is remarkable how rarely it 
is put forward as an important point of difference in his 



iiJ (li'fiuX'yi "*! ttivovv Kul 
iffsBofirfiy, to3 iioiiTou tirpus. 
t ComiHre Jnliaa. apud Cyril,, lib, 

a p. 65. 



• jDlinil asserts the vaiiaiu offioei 
of the lubordinot* ileitis, »pud Cyril., 
. p. 235. 

of tha most remarkable illos. 
WmtioBi of thJB wide-spread worship i 
of the niD is to be found 1q the nddrem 
Dj Julius Firmiciu llstcmus b 
vol.. II. 



Emperon Constastius and CoSBtoni. 
He iDtroducee the sua as remonatraCing 
againat the dishonourahle hoaoun thus 
heaped ipou him, and prolota agiinst 
beiug responsible for tlis acta, or in- 
volved in the ate, of Libei-, Attya, or 



■' Nolc 



Lcnta suppeditet. . . . Quio- 
(Inipliciter Deo parw, nee 
de me iutcUigatis, Diti quod 



FtUJ 

nmdfl I 

to d^m 



■J6l3 RESTORATION OF PAGANISM. Rws HI, 

religions writings ; while, in liia private correspondence, 
he falls back to the dubious and hesitating language of 
the ancient Heathens : " I am not one of those who dis- 
believe the immortality of the soul ; but the gods aione 
can know ; man can only conjecture that secret :" '' but 
his best consolation on the loss of friends was the say- 
ing of the Grecian philosopher to Darius, that if he 
would find three persons who had uot suffered the like 
calamities, he would restore the king's beautiful wife to 
Ijfe.*^ Julian's dying language, however, though Ftill 
vague and allied to the old Pantheistic system, eoimdfl 
more like serene coniidence in some future state 
being. 

The first eai-e of Juliaji was to restore the onti 
BstoraUm form of Pt^anism to its former splendour, 
ofPoBmi™. ^Q infuse the vigour of reviving youth into the 
antiquated system. The temples were everywhere to 
resume their ancient magnificence ; the muuicipolitiea 
were chained with the expense of these costly renova- 
tions. Where they had been destroyed by the zeal of 
the Christians, large fines were levied on the Chnrches, 
and became, as will hereafter appear, a pretext for 
grinding exaction, and sometimes cruel persecution. It 
assessed on the whole community the penalty, merited, 
perhaps, only by the rashness of a few zealots ; it revived 
outrages almost foi-gotten, and injuries perpetrated, per- 
haps, with the sanction, unquestionably with the con- 
nivance, of the former government. In many instances, 
it may have revenged, on the innocent and peacefiil, the 

" 05 yip ^ irai iii^fU isfitt rSy I (nii. tirlrraatai Si alni Toij Steii 
itrnirfi/fuy t4i ijux*' flToi irpo- irdyiin. Episl. tilii. p. 453, 
ariWuirSai ram aa/iirai/ f( avva- ' Epistle to Ameiius ud ihe Ion of 
TtiXKvaBai ■(!! ToFi >iiy at- hia wife. Ep, invii. p, 413. 



i 



CHAP. VL KESTORATION OF PAGANISM. 467 

crimes of the avaricious and irreligious; who either plun- 
dered under the mask of Christian zeal, or seized the 
opportunity, when the zeal of others might secure their 
impunity. That which takes place in all religious revo- 
lutions, had occurred to a considerable extent: the 
powerful had seized the opportunity of plundering the 
weaker party for their own advantage. The eunuchs 
and favourites of the court had fattened on the spoil of 
the temples.** If these men had been forced to regorge 
their ill-gotten gains, justice might have approved the 
measure ; but their crimes were unfairly visited on the 
whole Christian body. The extent to which the ruin 
and spoliation of the temples had been carried in the 
East, may be estimated from the tragic lamentations of 
Libanius. The soul of Julian, according to the orator, 
burned for empire, in order to restore the ancient order 
of things. 

In some respects, the success of Julian answered the 
high-wrought expectations of his partisans. His pane- 
gyrist indulges in this lofty language. " Thou, then, I 
say, mightiest Emperor, hast restored to the republic 
the expelled and banished virtues ; thou hast rekindled 
the study of letters ; thou hast not only delivered from 
her trial Philosophy, suspected heretofore and deprived 
of her honours, and even arraigned as a criminal, but 
hast clothed her in purple, crowned her with jewels, and 
seated her on the imperial throne. We may now look 
on the heavens, and contemplate the stars with fearless 
gaze, who, a short time ago, like the beasts of the field. 



< « Pasti templorum spoliis/' is the 
•trong expression of Ammianus. Liba- 
nius says, that some persons bad built 
themselves houses from the materials 



of the temples. Xfyfifiara 8^ MKovv 
ol rots rwv Upwv \idois a<plffiv avi o7i 
oUias iyflpoyrts, Orat. Parent, p^ 
504. 

2h2 



468 



RESTORATION OF PAGANISM. 



Book III. 



fixed our downward and grovelling vision on the earth." * 
"First of all," says Libanius, "he re-established the 
exiled religion, building, restoring, embellishing the 
temples. Everywhere were altars and fires, and the 
blood and fat of sacrifice, and smoke, and sacred rites, 
and diviners, fearlessly performing their functions. And 
on the tops of mountains were pipings and processions, 
and the sacrificial ox, which was at once an offering to 
the gods and a banquet to men."^ The private temple 
in the palace of Julian, in which he worshipped daily, 
was sacred to the Sun ; but he founded altars to all the 
gods. He looked with especial favour on those cities 
which had retained their temples ; with abhorrence on 
those which had suffered them to be destroyed, or to fall 
to ruin.^ 

Julian so entirely misapprehended Christianity, as to 
attribute its success and influence to its external orga- 
nisation, rather than to its internal authority over the 
soul of man. He thought that the religion grew out of 
the sacerdotal power, not that the sacerdotal power was 
but the vigorous development of the religion. He fondly 
supposed that the imperial edict, and the authority of 
the government, could supply the place of profound reli- 
gious sentiment ; and transform the whole Pagan priest^ 
liood, whether attached to the dissolute worship of the 
East, the elegant ceremonial of Greece, or the graver 
ritual of Bome, into a serious, highly moral, and blame- 
less hierarchy. The Emperor was to be at once the 
supreme head, and the model of this new sacerdotal 
order. The sagacious mind of Julian might have per- 



• Mam. Gnt, Act. c. zxiii. This 
clause refers, do doubt, to astrology 
and divination. 

' See y. L p. 529, one among many 



passages ; likewise, the Oratio pre 
Templis, and the Monodia. 
t Orat. Parent, p. 564. 



tmxr. TI. JlTLIAirS NSW PRIESTHOOD. 

ceived tiie dangerous power, growing up in the Chi'istiRn 
episcopate, which had already encroached upon the im- 
perial authority, and began to divide the allegiance of 
the world. His political apprehenaiona may have con- 
curred with his religions aniraoeities, in not merely 
endeavouring to check the increase of this poiver, but in 
desiring to concentrate again in the imperial person 
both branches of authority. The supreme pontificate of 
PoganiBm had indeed passed quietly do\vn with the rest 
of the imperial titles and functions. But the inter- 
ference of the Christian emperors in ecclesiastical affairs 
had been met with resistance, obeyed only with sullen 
reluctance, or but in deference to the strong arm of 
power. The doubtful issue of the conflict between the 
Emperor and his religious antagonist might awaken 
reasonable alarm for the majesty of the empire. If, on 
the other hand, Julian should succeed in reorganising 
the Pagan priesthood in efficiency, respect, and that 
moral superiority which now belonged to the Christian 
ecclesiastical system, the supreme pontificate, instead of 
being a mere appellation or an appendage to the im- 
perial title, would be an office of unlimited influence 
and authority.'' The Emperor would be the undisputed 
and unrivalled head of the religion of the empire ; the 
whole sacerdotal order would be at his com- jniim'snfw 
mand : Pagftnism, instead of being, as hereto- i*^"™^ 
fore, a confederacy of different religions, an aggregate 
of local systems of worship, each under its own tutelar 
deity, would become a well-regulated monarchy, with its 




i70 



JULIAN'S NEW PRIESTHOOD. 



Book HI. 



provincial, civic, and village priesthoods, acknowledging 
the supremacy, and obe5ring the impulse, of the high 
imperial functionary. Julian admitted the distinction 
between the priesthood and the laity.* In every province 
a supreme pontiff was to be appointed, charged with a 
superintendence over the conduct of the inferior priest- 
hood, and armed with authority to suspend or to depose 
those who should be guilty of any indecent irregularity. 
The whole priesthood were to be sober, chaste, tem- 
perate in all things. They were to abstain, not merely 
from loose society ; but, in a spirit diametrically opposite 
to the old religion, were rarely to be seen at public fes- 
tivals, never where women mingled in them.*^ In 
private houses, they were only to be present at the 
moderate banquets of the virtuous ; they were never to 
be seen drinking in taverns, or exercising any base or 
sordid trade. The priesthood were to stand aloof from 
society, and only mingle with it to infuse their own 
grave decency and unimpeachable moral tone. The 
theatre, that second temple, as it might be called, of 
the older religion, was sternly proscribed ; so entirely 
was it considered sunk from its high religious character, 
so incapable of being restored to its old moral influence. 
Tliey were to avoid all books, poetry, or tales, which 
might inflame their passions; to abstain altogether 
from those philosophical writings which subverted the 
foundations of religious belief, those of the Pyrrhonists 
and Epicureans, which Julian asserts had happily fallen 
into complete neglect, and had almost become obsolete. 
They were to be diligent and liberal in almsgiving, and 
to exercise hospitality on the most generous scale. The 



(8\ots) T&v Sticaiwv, 5s ovk dltrOa rl 



fihy hptvSy ri 8^ iSicSrijj. Fragm. 
Kpist Uu. k See Epist. xUx. 



r 



mS CHAEITABLE INSTrnjTIOSS. 



Jews had no beggars ; the ChnBtians maantained, indis- 
criminately, all applicants to their cliarity; it was a 
disgrace to the Pagans to be inattentive to such duties ; 
and the authority of Homer is alleged to show the pro- 
digal hospitality of the older Greeks, They were to 
establish houses of reception for atrangera in hu 

, , '^ . , , ttarlUiljle 

every city, and thus to nval or anrpa,sa the insiimuoQa 
generosity of the ChristianH. Supplies of com from the 
public granaries were assigned for these purposes, and 
placed at the disposal of the priests, partly for the 
maintenance of their attendants, partly for these pious 
uses. They were to pay great regard to the burial of 
the dead, a subject on which Grecian feeling had always 
been peculiarly sensitive, particularly of strangers. The 
benevolent institutions of Chriatianity were to imitsicd 
be imitated and associated to Paganism. A tiauiy. 
tax was to be levied in every province for the mainte- 
nance of the poor, and distributed by the priesthood. 
Hospitals for the sick and for hadigent strangers of 
every creed were to be formed in convenient piaces. 
The Christians, not without justice, called the Emperor 
" tlie ape of Christianity." Of all homage to the 
Gospel, this was the niost imprrasive and sincere ; and 
we are astonished at the blindness of Julian in not per- 
ceiving that these changes, which thus enforced his 
admiration, were the genuine and permanent results of 
the religion ; but the disputes, and strifes, and persecu- 
tions, the accidental and temporary effects of bumai,! 
passions awakened by this new and violent impulse on 
the human mind. 

Something hke an universal ritual formed part of the 
design of Julian. ITiree times a day prayer 
was to be publicly offered in the temples. The 
powerful aid of mtudc, so essential a oart of the oldet 



472 BELIGIOUS ISSTRUCTIOS, Book III. 

and better Grecian instraction, and of which the influ- 
ence ia so elevating to the Bonl," was called in to im- 
press the minds of the worshippers. Each temple was 
to have its organised band of choristers. A regular 
system of alternate chanting was introduced. It would 
be curious, if it were possible, to ascertain whether the 
Grecian temples received back their own music and 
their alternately responding choma from the Christian 
churches. 

Julian would invest the Pagan priesthood in that 
Rapa^sK respect, or rather that commanding majesty, 
""•"^ witfi which the profound reverence of the 
Christian world arrayed their hierarchy. Solemn silence 
was to reign in the temples. All persons in authority 
were to leave their guards at the door when they 
entered the hallowed precincts. The Emperor himself 
forbade the usual acclamations on hia entrance into the 
presence of the Gods. Directly he touched the sacred 
threshold, he became a private man. 

It is said that he meditated a complete course of reli- 
Rciigiom gions instruction. Schoolmasters, catechista, 
iMtracuon. preachers, were to teach, — are we to suppose 
the Platonic philosophy? — as part of the religion. A 
penitentia! form was to be drawn up for the readim»- 
sion of tram^esaors into the fold. Instead of throwing 
open the temples to the iree and promiscuous reception 
of apostatising Cliristians, the value of the privil^;e was 
Ui be enhanced by the difficulty of attaining it" They 
were to be slowly admitted to the distinction of rational 
believers in the gods. Tlie dii avermucatores (atoning 
deities) were to be propitiated ; the believers were to pass 
through different degrees of initiation. Prayers, expiar 

■ On Mnsic. See Epiat. hi. ■ See Epist. UL 



Chap. VI. ANIMAL SACRIFICES. 473 

tions, lustrations, severe trials, could alone purify their 
bodies and their minds, and make them worthy partici- 
panta in the Pagan mysteries. 

But Julian was not content with this moral regenera- 
tion of Paganism ; he attempted to bring back Animal 
the public mind to all the sanguinary ritual of *«***«*• 
sacrifice, to which the general sentiment had been gra- 
dually growing unfamiliar and repugnant. The time 
was passed when men could consider the favour of the 
gods propitiated according to the number of slaughtered 
beasts. The philosophers must have smiled in secret 
at the superstition of the philosophic Emperor. Julian 
himself washed off his Christian baptism by the new 
Oriental rite of aspersion by blood, the Taurobolia or 
Kriobolia of the Mithriac mysteries;' he was regene- 
rated anew to Paganism.^ This indeed was a secret 
ceremony; but Julian was perpetually seen, himself 
wielding the sacrificial knife, and exploring with his 
own hands the reeking entrails of the victims, to learn 
the secrets of futurity. The enormous expenditure 
lavished on the sacrifices, the hecatombs of cattle, the 
choice birds from all quarters, drained the revenue.^ 
The Western soldiers, especially the intemperate Gauls, 
indulged in the feasts on the victims to such excess, and 
mingled them with such copious libations of wine, as to 
be carried to their tents amid the groans and mockeries 



• Gregor. Naz. iii. p. 70. 

P The person initiated desoend into 
a pit or trench ; and through a kind 
of sieve, or stone pierced with holes, 
the blood of the bull or the ram was 
poured over his whole person. 

t Julian acknowledges the reluct- 



ance to sacrifice in many parts. 
"Show me/' he sajs, to the philo- 
sopher Aristomenes, ** a genuine Greek 
in Cappadoda." T4cos yiip robs fihv 
oh fiovXofi4vovs, 6\lyovs dh rivas 
i$4\orr€u /u^v, obK tlSSras d\ Bluv^ 
6pm, Epist iv. p. 375. 



TOL. II. 2 1 



474 



ANIMAL SACRIFICES. 



Boos DL 



of the more sober/ The gifts to diviners, soothsayers^ 
and impostors of all classes, offended equally the more 
>vise and rational. In the public, as well as private, 
conduct of Julian, there was a Heathen Pharissdsm, an 
attention to minute and trifling observances, which could 
not but excite contempt even in the more enlightened 
of his own party. Every morning and evening he 
offered sacrifice to the sun ; he rose at night to offer 
the same homage to the moon and stars. Every day 
brought the rite of some other god. Julian was con- 
stantly seen prostrate before the image of the deity, 
busying himself about the ceremony, performing the 
menial ofiSces of cleansing the wood, and kindling the 
fire with his own breath, till the victim was ready for 
the imperial hands. The sacrifices were so frequent 
that had he returned victorious over the Parthians, it 
was said, there would have been a dearth of cattle.* 



' I do not believe the story of human 
lacrifices in Alexandria and Athens, 
Socrat. E. H. iii. 13. 

" Jnnumeros sine parBimoni& mac- 



tans; ut crederetm*, si revertisaet di 
Parthi8|*'boyesjamdefeetaroe. Amm, 
Marc. XZ7. 4, 



END OP TOL. n. 



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